Since I'm powder-coating all the chrome accents, I'm not sure how well the stainless steel insert would look over time.

then again at the same time would the black mesh be a big enough departure from the shark teeth grill that's factory? I get paid tomorrow so all last minute doubts are being ventilated in this thread.

reference pics would be nice, I stalked the user photo gallery here for an hour looking for some.

 

I think the stainless mesh will still look good.

 

What color are you powerder coating all the chrome? If you're doing black, which would be very interesting, then that mesh will have to be black top and bottom. That could turn out to look pretty wicked, and probably the only one on the road. Toss a set of good matched anthracite or black wheels, and you're talkin'. Shoot, I painted my calipers yellow on a blacked out X type. You could paint your red and that'll really pop. Jesus, I could think all day long, but what's dangerous is this is only in my head. the reality of this could be an absolute catastrophe... What are your plans? What's your angle? how are you gonna be the coolest kid in school

 

Black. If your car is red then the black will look nice and aggressive. I just put mesh on mine in stainless and it looks so much better. My car is silver though and my grill surround is chrome, along with door trim and corner bumper flash thingys.
I got my mesh from Jaguar as it is a genuine part. In black or stainless. By using the genuine part you do not have to cut away the slats on the one factory fitted one. I dont like to vandalise existing parts for a cheaper mod. Non genuine mesh on ebay is like £40 uk pounds. I got the part from Jaguar for £70 (all be it spares dept of dealer where selling it all off cheap) For me it was worth it. I have still the slatted grill if I ever need it & could sell it to get some of the money back if I wanted to.

Either way red car black mesh, Top Notch! cool and aggressive.

 

I'd go with the more aggressive look of black. I've done a few of these and prefer the black in most cases, except maybe on a white car, then the SS looks better to me.

 

Gotta be BLACK!

 

Red car... Id go black for sure.

 

Black, black, black!

 

stock black. everyone does mesh.

 

Everyone? EVERYONE?? EVERY-ONE??? Maybe a lot of people here do, but this forum is a small community of people that drive this car. I live in southern california... lots of nice cars, lots of extremely modified, and have noticed only a small handfun of people put in the mesh grill, and they're putting in stainless... haven't seen a single other driver with black. No kidding! So, I just have to disagree with that.

Hey brother, if you want the mesh, slap it on. I along with EVERYONE, did the upper and lower black mesh, and you wanna know what? it looks 100% better than that black plastic crap that jag went cheap on when installing on the car.

 

Black black black

 

Yes, everyone who modifies their X-Type.

Purely stock cars don't count - they have no intention change the look of their transportation in any way.

 

Gotta be black. It looks awesome on Carnival Red:

http://www.seriouswheels.com/pics-jk...t-1280x960.jpg

 

^ FTW

Just don't go overboard and get into Pontiac territory....