E3 Series I C-Pillar Grills

[rblongboarder]

I found this excellent nugget of discussion on E3 Series I / 2800 c-pillar grilles:

Early 2800 C Pillar Grilles

I assume these are a chrome finish, can anyone confirm? The e3 photo thread showed several with black finish, ours were faded grey and replacements from BMW are unfinished.

e9coupe.com

I wanted to verify part numbers:

• Left Grill: 51-13-1-805-577
• Right Grill: 51-13-1-805-578

I recently acquired the hood grilles. Searching for the c-pillar grilles... are these items plastic, or unpainted metal?

 

[Christoph]

BMW calls them "Grid", "Ziergitter" in German. In Dutch, French and Italian they use "Grille", by the way. Reading the parts catalogue can be fun.

As mentioned before, all four grilles are different. The upper ones are a little shorter than the lower ones.
Left, upper - 51 13 1 805 577
Right, upper - 51 13 1 805 578
Left, lower - 51 13 1 805 579
Right, lower - 51 13 1 805 580
The grilles are unpainted plastic. Newer pieces came in light beige, long ago some were coloured. I had one in Colorado and one in Riviera. Maybe initially all grilles came in body colour but not anymore.
Careful with old parts. After 50 or more years the pins on the back side tend to fall off if you look at them too hard, then the grilles are useless.
Walloth & Nesch had all four versions in stock some time ago. Stopped looking when my set was complete and painted body colour.