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Picture request - Golf GTI with Golf R Grill

Timothy Bryce

Timothy Bryce

Ready to race!
I currently have an all black GTI grill which I like very much but still includes the GTI badge. I'm considering swapping it for a Golf R grill but it's quite an investment if I don't like how it looks. To anyone who has this; does it make the car look too non-GTI in your opinion? Or does it still look good?
I know this is quite subjective so if anyone has it, let's see some pics....
 
torga

torga

Autocross Champion
Non precisely what you want, but here's my black GTI with a base model Golf grille. Which, aesthetically, I believe is at least 95% the same as the R grille, just without the R badge, of course.
IMG_20200730_105326-02.jpeg
 
Gr8N0rthW0lf

Gr8N0rthW0lf

Go Kart Champion
IMO it only looks good swapping out the GTI grille if you're also going to swap out the grill on the bumper. It looks good with the matched honeycomb on both, but I don't find it looks as nice with the honeycomb bumper grill and straight lined upper grille. but again, personal opinion
 
Timothy Bryce

Timothy Bryce

Ready to race!
Edy.Ct said:
Or you can just paint the GTI badge black :)
Click to expand...

Thanks, I have one of those already. I've ordered an OEM R grill; it could be an expensive mistake but we shall see!
 

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Thumper

Thumper

Autocross Champion
Tony48 said:
Replica R grille without the badge. And I did a custom lower grille to match (deletes the honeycomb).

IMG_20170407_083358 by tonyg37, on Flickr

IMG_20191129_160911 by Tony G, on Flickr

IMG_20200505_190755 by Tony G, on Flickr
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:p


See that looks better. Personally, the honeycomb means GTI to me and it's funny (and just further proof of my theory* about us modding enthusiasts lol) that people take off the signature of an upper level model and put the parts from a low end model on.

That said, everyone should have the car look how they want. But if you are going to remove the upper honeycomb, I think it looks a little silly having the lower honeycomb. Of course, there are examples of that on other cars. The Audi S cars have factory bar grilles, but still run honeycomb fog light bezels. But then I hated that too and quickly got a honeycomb grille for the S3, left the S4 stock but always bugged me.

* Thumper's; Theory of Modding - It's not about the mod, it's about doing a mod in the first place. If the factory paints trim body color we take it off and put on black or aluminum, if they give us black or aluminum....we take it off and put on body color. If the factory gives us honeycomb, we take it off and put on bars, if they give us bars....we take it off and put on honeycomb. (y)
 
jay745

jay745

What Would Glenn Danzig Do
Thumper1 said:
:p


See that looks better. Personally, the honeycomb means GTI to me and it's funny (and just further proof of my theory* about us modding enthusiasts lol) that people take off the signature of an upper level model and put the parts from a low end model on.

That said, everyone should have the car look how they want. But if you are going to remove the upper honeycomb, I think it looks a little silly having the lower honeycomb. Of course, there are examples of that on other cars. The Audi S cars have factory bar grilles, but still run honeycomb fog light bezels. But then I hated that too and quickly got a honeycomb grille for the S3, left the S4 stock but always bugged me.

* Thumper's; Theory of Modding - It's not about the mod, it's about doing a mod in the first place. If the factory paints trim body color we take it off and put on black or aluminum, if they give us black or aluminum....we take it off and put on body color. If the factory gives us honeycomb, we take it off and put on bars, if they give us bars....we take it off and put on honeycomb. (y)
Click to expand...
I do agree and personally hate the lower honeycomb... problem is you can't the slotted lower grill anywhere anymore.


It's about being unique and not like the other millions of gtis on the road.

plus chrome anything just looks hideous on any car :p
 
riceburner

riceburner

Autocross Champion
fyi for anyone curious, i had bought what i thought was an R LOWER grille - off a golf, really, which has the same BASIC shape/slats like an r grille. Turns out, it doesn't fit. And holy hell it it tough to wrestle the oem grille out of the bumper, not even close to worth the hassle.
 
Timothy Bryce

Timothy Bryce

Ready to race!
Thumper said:
* Thumper's; Theory of Modding - It's not about the mod, it's about doing a mod in the first place. If the factory paints trim body color we take it off and put on black or aluminum, if they give us black or aluminum....we take it off and put on body color. If the factory gives us honeycomb, we take it off and put on bars, if they give us bars....we take it off and put on honeycomb. (y)
Click to expand...
You know they say history repeats itself; well 25 years ago when I bought my first gti, a Mk2; one if the first mods I did was to remove the factory GTI grill with red trim and spotlights and big silver VW badge and replace it with a Bonrath ‘non spotlight’ badgeless grill!
 
Tony48

Tony48

Go Kart Champion
For anyone interested here's an album of pics that shows some of the work that was done to make my lower "bar-style" grille. You have to scroll through some bumper disassembly pics. Essentially I cut the entire grille section out of the GTI grille to leave only the frame. Bought a base golf grille and hacked it up until it "fit" into the GTI frame. Lots of filling, sanding, and painting later, voila.

100% not worth the effort, 0/10 would not recommend haha. But it turned out great.

 
Timothy Bryce

Timothy Bryce

Ready to race!
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