Front grill colour

[Toddie]

@1/2CWT the front grilles on my 2002 3.2S are the same Titanium colour as the screen surrounds, the rear badge is the same. The colour of the car is  Indischrot red. My mates old early 2.5 986 had satin black grilles with satin black screen surrounds and rear badge exterior colour was I believe Miami Blue, if not it was very close to that.

[½cwt]

6 minutes ago, Toddie said:

@1/2CWT the front grilles on my 2002 3.2S are the same Titanium colour as the screen surrounds, the rear badge is the same. The colour of the car is  Indischrot red. My mates old early 2.5 986 had satin black grilles with satin black screen surrounds and rear badge exterior colour was I believe Miami Blue, if not it was very close to that.

That stacks up with the apparent spec of red car on the Driver' Manual, but I've yet to see an Arctic Silver car with these titanium trims, although @el 3.2S seems to have had titanium grilles before they faded. I'm thinking the titanium bits would look slightly odd on a silver car other than possibly the lettering on the boot.

[the baron]

16 minutes ago, ½cwt said:

Should be satin black on a 2.5 if you want to refresh them.

This ^^^ that's what I found out too, as I want my car as original as possible.

[Geoffjackson]

44 minutes ago, ½cwt said:

My grilles are black currently, not sure I'd go as far as you on the whole intake moulding, or @el 3.2S on the whole centre rad intake in black.

This question is research really as to whether they would have been anything different originally and as the bumper needs repainting I can get them pro painted to correct colour at the same time. 

Research so far show 2.5 and 2.7 were satin black but suggestions are titanium on at least some colours for the S including the same colour for screen surround trim as can be seen just on the red car on the Driver's Manual cover (mine is all black but it has had a new screen in the past so this may be incorrect as a result from that time and there is a 9A4 code option for the 98654154101 screen seal trim) and also the boot lettering, but mine is chrome. Implies that Arctic Silver at least may not fully follow the titanium theme.

Sorry getting a bit nerdy here but now the question is in my mind I want to track down the definitive answer. Call it a character flaw.

Haha can be annoying when everybody else seems a lot more relaxed about the situation.

hopefully you’ll get on track soon enough with a definitive answer in your pursuit to perfection 

[some bloke]

1 hour ago, ½cwt said:

Should be satin black on a 2.5 if you want to refresh them.

Thanks - might look into doing that.

[myfirstboxster]

Mine were a faded grey so I sprayed them satin black

 

[the baron]

2 hours ago, myfirstboxster said:

Mine were a faded grey so I sprayed them satin black

 

Thats a mirror image of what mine look like now, I think the mesh behind looks better than the Zunnsport grills that sit in front, makes it look more stock

[el 3.2S]

20 hours ago, NicGun said:

Just had a dig around on Design911 and they are available new, listed as titanium for £284.40 each side 😱 - they have satin black for non S at "only" £93.56 each side, but obviously much less expensive to refurb.

Will be interested in the results of your refurb as mine would benefit from some attention too, they are as they left the factory but a little tired looking in places after 20yrs, shown up slightly more as I have black mesh behind them now.

They are part no 3 here: https://www.design911shop.com/pages/diagramsBrowser.aspx?categoryID=8&diagramID=3281

Would be interesting to get price from OPC, as I've known them to be much cheaper than Design911 on some parts.

So in painting my S grills black, I have devalued them by £190.84 a side - not to mention the middle one!🤣

[bally4563]

8 minutes ago, el 3.2S said:

So in painting my S grills black, I have devalued them by £190.84 a side - not to mention the middle one!🤣

😂😂😂

[stevemag]

I made my own mesh grills

I put them behind the grills on the side 

But in front of the front grills.

My grills are silver to match the bumper colour....different! 

[stevemag]

 

 

One day when I get the front bumper repainted, I'll put the mesh behind the grills

[NicGun]

15 hours ago, ½cwt said:

That stacks up with the apparent spec of red car on the Driver' Manual, but I've yet to see an Arctic Silver car with these titanium trims, although @el 3.2S seems to have had titanium grilles before they faded. I'm thinking the titanium bits would look slightly odd on a silver car other than possibly the lettering on the boot.

I've done as much reading around as I can, looking at pics etc and IMHO it seems all early S cars had front titanium trims, including artic silver, they became body coloured with the 2nd gen revisions (completely redesigned front bumper etc) in 2002.

If you look at the badging on first gen 1999-2002 986S they are all titanium, irrespective of colour of the car, even on artic silver.

My own car has slightly faded titanium trims and is (aside from me adding mesh behind the grilles) as it left the factory - will get some pics sorted this morning and upload.

[NicGun]

16 hours ago, ½cwt said:

That stacks up with the apparent spec of red car on the Driver' Manual, but I've yet to see an Arctic Silver car with these titanium trims, although @el 3.2S seems to have had titanium grilles before they faded. I'm thinking the titanium bits would look slightly odd on a silver car other than possibly the lettering on the boot.

Some pics of my Artic Silver 2000MY 986 S front, with grilles that are as they were from factory aside from mesh behind I added last year, and they are definitely a different colour to the car, I'm searching for an Arctic Silver S Porsche press pic but can't locate one, will update if I find one.

Clean car in sun.

 

Dirty car (rained overnight) overcast day taken just now.

 

 

[the baron]

They actually look good on your car which I wasn't expecting @NicGun, as the standard seems to be black on arctic silver.

[NicGun]

16 minutes ago, the baron said:

They actually look good on your car which I wasn't expecting @NicGun, as the standard seems to be black on arctic silver.

@the baron Yep I actually like the titanium look as standard for a 3.2 on Artic Silver, which is different to the satin black on 2.5 / 2.7's, also prefer the DIY mesh behind them too as opposed to ZunnSports in front to keep it looking OEM ish - but as ever each to their own ✌️

 

[½cwt]

2 hours ago, NicGun said:

@the baron Yep I actually like the titanium look as standard for a 3.2 on Artic Silver, which is different to the satin black on 2.5 / 2.7's, also prefer the DIY mesh behind them too as opposed to ZunnSports in front to keep it looking OEM ish - but as ever each to their own ✌️

 

Thanks for all the extra info. As @the baron says it looks better than I thought.  It actually makes the centre rad inlet look a bit less clunky.

I can explain away everything on my car not being titanium i.e. new screen so they just fitted black not the correct titanium.  The front has had cosmetic damage so could explain why grilles were not correct.  The only one that I can't explain is the chrome boot lettering.  So were there factory options for badging or is mine turning out to be a real mongrel? 

Once I can get a colour reference I intend to get the grilles returned to titanium finish and also fit mesh behind after seeing how much bigger debris I found in the rads as well as fine grit and dust.

[NicGun]

40 minutes ago, ½cwt said:

Thanks for all the extra info. As @the baron says it looks better than I thought.  It actually makes the centre rad inlet look a bit less clunky.

I can explain away everything on my car not being titanium i.e. new screen so they just fitted black not the correct titanium.  The front has had cosmetic damage so could explain why grilles were not correct.  The only one that I can't explain is the chrome boot lettering.  So were there factory options for badging or is mine turning out to be a real mongrel? 

Once I can get a colour reference I intend to get the grilles returned to titanium finish and also fit mesh behind after seeing how much bigger debris I found in the rads as well as fine grit and dust.

Guess you can assume that a previous owner fitted the replacement chrome Boxster S on your boot (was standard on 550 Anniverary) lot's of people on here have removed the Boxster script and replaced with  P  O  R  S  C  H  E   lettering and most owners do tend to modify / personalise even just slightly.

My car is on its original screen, so still has the (albeit slightly faded) titanium screen surround, my car also seems rare in that I'm its 4th owner but when I purchased it (in 2018 with 54k miles on) I couldn't actually find a single modification from how it was supplied via factory. The only thing I've done (aside from usual tyres / servicing etc) is add hidden bluetooth audio / handsfree to CDR-22 and black mesh behind the grilles.

Let me know how you get on with you're refurbed grilles once you get a paint ref. 👍

[el 3.2S]

2 hours ago, ½cwt said:

Thanks for all the extra info. As @the baron says it looks better than I thought.  It actually makes the centre rad inlet look a bit less clunky.

I can explain away everything on my car not being titanium i.e. new screen so they just fitted black not the correct titanium.  The front has had cosmetic damage so could explain why grilles were not correct.  The only one that I can't explain is the chrome boot lettering.  So were there factory options for badging or is mine turning out to be a real mongrel? 

Once I can get a colour reference I intend to get the grilles returned to titanium finish and also fit mesh behind after seeing how much bigger debris I found in the rads as well as fine grit and dust.

My car had the dull titanium boot badges. I thought they looked a bit naff and kind of similar to the body colour, so I ripped them off and are now stuck on the garage wall. Fitted nice chrome P O R S C H E lettering instead. 

I need to check the screen surround, as have never noticed if it is titanium or not? Maybe it has been replaced by a previous owner?

 

[Mark Lane]

I've just been through this deliberation myself. In the end I decided to paint the grilles body colour (arctic silver). 

This is the look off the car : 

(The PU itself needs a repair and repaint at some point in the future)

[½cwt]

More research on this has found a clue staring me in the face.  The suffix for these part numbers is 9A4 but it does not appear in the general Porsche body colour listings.  However I seem to have found this as a colour for the Carrera GT in matt - PORSCHE TITAN MET MATT 9A4 (2003-2004) and a specialist paint shop supplier offers this paint code as a Porsche code described as a titanium grey. 

Question now (maybe @NicGun can help) is this in a matt finish on the grilles and screen surround?  I believe it is matt on the boot lettering.  So if I can get the base colour the lustre can be controlled with the finishing lacquer, gloss, satin or matt.

[NicGun]

1 hour ago, ½cwt said:

More research on this has found a clue staring me in the face.  The suffix for these part numbers is 9A4 but it does not appear in the general Porsche body colour listings.  However I seem to have found this as a colour for the Carrera GT in matt - PORSCHE TITAN MET MATT 9A4 (2003-2004) and a specialist paint shop supplier offers this paint code as a Porsche code described as a titanium grey. 

Question now (maybe @NicGun can help) is this in a matt finish on the grilles and screen surround?  I believe it is matt on the boot lettering.  So if I can get the base colour the lustre can be controlled with the finishing lacquer, gloss, satin or matt.

 

Good work on the paint research, it's had to be conclusive with my own car as to the paint finish, as the trim and grilles have faded somewhat over tome (my car has just ticked over to 60k miles and is 20yrs old next month) however with a bit of digging I found these pics.

These are brand new early 986S grilles (from a completed eBay listing) and surprisingly it shows the vertical spokes appear a darker finish than the titanium horizontal and surrounds.

 

The pics below are original Porsche press pics.

 

And these pics show a 1 owner less than 20k mile early 986S that's up for auction shortly, and it does clearly show the grilles looking the same as the OEM new pics - hope that helps.

 

[½cwt]

Great pictures @NicGun.  Looks like I need some 9A4 paint in an aerosol, some lacquer and then mask off the vertical barks to keep them what appears to be matt or at most a low satin black.  This two tone certainly helps to explain some of the discrepancies in ideas around the finish.  The finish in the top pictures certainly backs up what the surrounds of mine look like now and would indicate what they looked like before they had possibly silver but then definitely black sprayed over the louvers. I think I will try to return mine to 'stock'.

[NicGun]

20 minutes ago, ½cwt said:

Great pictures @NicGun.  Looks like I need some 9A4 paint in an aerosol, some lacquer and then mask off the vertical barks to keep them what appears to be matt or at most a low satin black.  This two tone certainly helps to explain some of the discrepancies in ideas around the finish.  The finish in the top pictures certainly backs up what the surrounds of mine look like now and would indicate what they looked like before they had possibly silver but then definitely black sprayed over the louvers. I think I will try to return mine to 'stock'.

Good luck, will be very interested to see results, I'm leaving mine as they are for now - as they haven't been sprayed before even though they are faded they still look ok, but will source some new OEM grills over time, as I intend to have a front bumper and bonnet refresh at some stage - have a few stones chips etc, nothing horrible but will do the grilles at the same time...

Likely to be a year or two away so not in a rush at this stage.

[½cwt]

It seems to be a mid grey so may not be faded.  They are not located somewhere where they would be expected to fade, also if the hidden surround that sits behind the bumper and the exposed parts don't show a colour difference, no fading.  The black on the vertical fins might be a bit grey after 20 years but that could be touched in.

[naim22]

On 4/13/2020 at 11:10 AM, NicGun said:

I've done as much reading around as I can, looking at pics etc and IMHO it seems all early S cars had front titanium trims, including artic silver, they became body coloured with the 2nd gen revisions (completely redesigned front bumper etc) in 2002.

If you look at the badging on first gen 1999-2002 986S they are all titanium, irrespective of colour of the car, even on artic silver.

This is correct, the parts catalogue shows the option code M008 (986 S 3.2 litre displacement) as aligning to the titanium metallic finish and M009 (986 2.5 litre displacement to 99MY and 2.7 litre displacement 00MY onwards) as aligning to the satin black finish

This is true only up until before 03MY at which point the front bumper changed completely

As I modified my current set to have some mesh behind the grilles to protect the radiator , I wanted to be sure to get the right spares for my car. They were very cheap second hand