I'm sort of stuck between wanting the '09 facelift grill (with the circle in the middle), or just a set of mesh grill inserts, upper and lower probably, maybe just upper. I like the mina '09 facelift grills, but they are about $300 unpainted or like $400 painted. That's kind of a lot of money for one part, but it would make the car look more like the current style of Jaguars. It's a pretty common upgrade but I guess it does make an x-type stand out more from the crowd. I wouldn't say it totally makes it look like a new car, more like a 2009 x-type. I think they look better with the sport body kits. Anyway, my other idea is either a black or silver mesh grill kit. There is one on ebay for $150 upper and lower from a Mercedes parts guy that looks pretty quality. I wasn't sold on the lower grills but almost everybody on here said do both, it looks better. I think I would be pretty happy with the mesh grill (grille?) inserts. I was thinking black because my headlight housings are black and my car is white. The black grills are harder to see but I think that would look pretty cool, although the silver would go with my chrome and probably look more factory original. One option also is just to get the black mina upper insert, and leave the lower part stock with the air splitter. I think that would look pretty sporty. Maybe I could pick up one the of the facelift grills down the line.

 

I went for the sport mesh grill in black with colour coded surround and an Adamesh lower mesh grill in black.

The sport grill was used and painted to my colour code for around $120, the Adamesh grill was around $160 new.

I am in the UK so prices may not be that accurate, the sport came from a breakers who painted it free.

 

I have the black mesh for both, since I dont like chrome. Although I do have a chrome set I never used in a box. And I ordered the update grill from mina, should be here any day now haha. Its hard to go wrong either way.

 

Black mesh. Upper/Lower. Made it myself. Looks great!

 

That's cool. The black grills look nice. What are you going to do with that chrome set? How much did your mina facelift grill cost? Did you get the color painted one? Seems easier than trying to get it painted yourself, unless you are planning on spraying some other parts while you are at it.

 

I'm not doing anything with them really. I might sell them, well I've been meaning to but I honestly keep forgetting about them. It was like, 340 for the grill I think, whatever they list it for. Yes, painted. I didn't feel like waiting on my guy to actually paint it and it wasn't that much more.

 

Those grills are bad ***. I want to get one but I'm not sure what I want to do yet. I was tempted to just buy the upper mesh insert this weekend, but I think I'm getting ahead of myself and wanting to make an impulse buy before I do my shocks, like I'm trying to do too much at once. I want to see how it looks just lowered then think about what I want to do with the grill. I may leave it stock, who knows. I am kind of liking the mesh grill inserts too, just as something different, but I think the facelift grill would be sweet. I probably should put that money towards my car loan first though because it doesn't make sense to put a $400 grill on a car I don't own yet. Well anyway, post the results when you get it installed.

 

I went with the facelift grill from Adamesh...the only thing I didn't like was the month-long wait for it to be shipped!

 

Oh man that looks nice. We have the same car too just in different colors. I think I will get one of those when I have a little bit of extra money. Probably the best upgrade you can do looks wise. In the meantime I may just get the mesh inserts and see how they look. The older grills have more of that BMW look to them, but I dig the new style grill.

 

I went with the 09 Mina grill as well but bought it unpainted with the black mesh. Paid their asking price plus shipping and bought some Jaguar Quartz Metallic spray paint to paint the surround(and the chrome bumper blades) myself. Turned out beautiful if I don't say so myself

 

I have Mina's upper and lower mesh inserts in chrome. I really love them, and having both does render a complete look. The install for the upper was fairly straight forward, but removing the splitter for the lower was a bit more of a job. If you have a buddy who can help it's nice to have an extra set of hands for the lower grill.

It sounds like you want the '09 upgrade. I think you should get what you really want, maybe it takes you a little longer to save but I think it'll be worth it. And, I'd say that these upgrades are way more common here on this forum than in the real world. I hardly ever see mesh grills driving around (especially both upper and lower), nor do I recall seeing the '09 grill on a car here in DC. Good luck to you on your decision.

 

I like both. The mesh grills (upper and lower) have a nice touch to them. I am also a fan of the 09 grills too. It's kind of like putting an Escalade grill on a truck, but for a Jaguar haha. No but seriously I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet. I'm getting lowering springs right now and that is a massive project in itself for a shadetree mechanic. It will give me time to think about what direction I want to go. I want to see how it looks lowered with the stock grill. It might look kind of cool to keep it original. I was also thinking about getting an exhaust or a stereo too and am kind of on limited resources. I think the grill is kind of a cool way to distinguish your x-type from the average one, but what I'm thinking is keep it original for now and lower it to give it kind of a VIP sleeper look.

 

Go with the facelift. I love mine. Also, if you want some Mina quad tail lights, I have some that I never got around to putting on that I'm currently selling.

 

Yea I wanna get the facelift grill. I might try to find a used one, I've seen a couple for around $200, just didn't have the resources at the time. Painting it sucks though. I considered getting the custom mixed cans of spray paint, but you would have to clear coat it like 10 times since it sits in the front of the car and hits all the bugs. The mesh grilles are tempting too though for the price. What about a mina mesh upper insert in black on a white car? Their lower inserts are expensive though.

 

If you decide to go with the facelift, here's some good reading: https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...ill-pics-7366/

When I was looking for mine, I liked both the Mina and Adamesh facelifts, though I went with Adamesh because I'm the OEM-type of guy. I paid a bit extra for the paint, and they did a really good job. If your looking on ebay, part numbers are C2S46905XXX for the surround and C2C38927 for the badge.

At the end of the day, I would go with what you want the most. Mina mesh on white sounds pretty good!

 

Thanks. The facelift grills are sexy though. Costs a bit but probably the best upgrade you can do to the exterior in my opinion next to the sport kit.

 

Painted my stock grill vanes black today. Was wanting to do something different than the stock grill anyway so I decided to check it out and see what I could do with it. Thought at first I would be able to just remove the vanes entirely and put the chrome piece back in without them, leaving kind of ominous black holes where the grill would be, but it turned out the vanes are necessary to bolt the grill together. So then I took the plunge and decided to try stripping the chrome or painting it. Bleach didn't remove the chrome like I thought, so since I already had it all out and taken apart (quit a job actually) I decided to sand it and hit it with a few coats of black. It was actually a messy project because it was getting close to dark and I was racing the clock, and the old can didn't want to spray at first, but it looks nice and I got it all back together. The vanes were a little tricky to paint, it was easy to get some drips on the sides of the vanes. But I added several coats and the blemishes were pretty minimal. Having a better working can would've helped but it turned out fine. It's black so it kind of disappears in front of the radiator, but it looks cool. It looks like carbon fiber now instead of stainless steel.

 

I like the black grill. Do you think it would look good on my black car?

 

Yea definitely. It will look like the sport model. They have a black grill. I wasn't sure if black would look alright on a white car but I already have my headlight housings blacked out and I figure it would match and look more sporty. The chrome is nice but it kind of has that boring feel to it. You just see them on every x-type everywhere. I figured I would at least paint mine to make it my own.

 

This is what our sport model looks like