Can anyone help me to find information on the official or an alternative paint supply to respray my faded air vents?

Is this a common problem?

caused by the sun or perhaps a cleaning product?

Thanks for reading.



Faded paint

Unfaded paint

 

I see your issues on your vent, you may be able to clean that up with the proper product, if not i would think you could disassemble the vent and give it a couple of coats of paint, only issue is you would lose your open/close markers, not a huge deal... I'm sure someone will come along and recommend something. But just for your information the two pics of the vents are from two different year models, one having the darker vent like yours and the later was silver, so your vent has not faded the silver off, it never was silver...
Here are a couple of part #'s i pulled up that could get you going on searching for a replacement from an auto breaker C2P21494 & 6W83-19K617-A

 

There are actually 3 versions, in 2007 there was matte black, then tungsten until 2011 and then gloss silver from 2012 on.

They are painted and only options would be repaint or buy new ones or pick some up on eBay.

 

Really helpful once again, I guess mine weren’t Matt black as the symbols are black.

Ive only seen silver vents that match the colour used on other interior parts.

would anyone have photos of the other colours?

 

I just took these photos of my 2009 XKR Portfolio vents. The color must be Tungsten, as jahummer noted in his Post #3, above, because they're not black and they're too dark to be silver.

 

Your "unfaded paint" vent is above my Tungsten vent. The colors appear to be pretty close.

 

Stuart's are Tungsten, which also match other trim pieces around the car.

This is black




And this is gloss silver from the face lift 2012+ which interior trim was in matching gloss silver

 

Thought the two tone effect of black and tungsten looked extremely silly I removed my vents and had the guys at work paint them piano Black for me

 

That looks great, particularly with your black leather upholstery, shift knob, and piano black dash trim.

 

Well thank you however I'm still not content I think perhaps some red stitching might tie it all in nicely (I've currently have slate coloured stitching not a factory option as I did it by hand )

 

I painted my tungsten vents black, changed the control panel from tungsten to black as well as changing seat controls to black/chrome.

 

Good move !

The tungsten stuff is hideous

I've got to work out a way to change the facia on my entertainment unit then I'll be free of it on my dash

 

The center vent louvres on my 2007 are turning white but the bezel is fine.

It’s funny how these little things age and drive us crazy.

 

I found it on eBay. Easy install. The only tungsten left on my car is the steering wheel...can’t decide wether I want to replace it or remove the panels and paint them.

 

That's a description of my wife!

 

Resurrecting this thread as I have just bought a spare set of trims and I am looking to spray them gloss black, are they hard to remove? Do I need to remove anything else first? I have removed all the centre trim so hopefully that won't be too bad just wondered about the 2 side ones, do I need to remove any other trim first.

I think it will look much better all gloss black

 

What is you're infotainment system?

 

It's a Tesla style unit that replaces the OEM system

 

You'll need to replace the 'airbag cover' on the passenger side and the trim above the steering wheel on the drivers size. The side vents have one torx screw and a few clips holding them in

 

many thanks for the reply, are these the 2 parts that i need to remove? Makes sense as they are right next to the vents