Ok I'm going to paint the grille on the wfies car either a metallic black or a pearl black. Would just like to know if there are any helpful tips, tricks or steps that I may of missed that will help with a smooth final surface success. Thanks

 

Everything is good minus the wax. Make sure you only lightly polish....Dont apply wax to the grille for atleast 14 days

 

when I did mine you don't have to make sure all the chrome is off I just scuffed it up real quick. depending on how close you want the grill to look to OEM paint you could throw in some wet sanding as well. I used some paint I ordered of Automotive touch up in the aerosol can

 

thanks I'll hopefully be tackling this either this weekend or next

 

Cool I'll be following your thread and hopefully following suit soon after. I did the first steps of painting my calipers today. 3 coats of primer. Going to let it cure n set for 24 hours then begin the color coats ext. I can already tell that I'm getting the painting bug so I'm sure I'll be searching for other DIY painting projects. Watch out grille and watch out engine bay here I come!

I've got a question tho should I pull down the cals and do a lil bit of wet sanding before moving on to the color step? The primer looks good no runs or obvious F ups, but I want it to be perfect so if anybody can help guide me I'd really appreciate it.

 

Primer will give you the bond you want, no need for sanding that step unless you've got some high spots where the paint didn't flow out or any runs. I would lightly sand the last color coat just to give a decent etch for the clear, then light sand the clear w/ 2500 grit (but only if you plan on doing a polish as your last step) if no polish is planned just leave the clear alone.

 

A polish for the last step? I haven't seen that mentioned on any of the DIY threads or anywhere else. Possibly because it could be common knowledge for experienced car guys and I'm clearly far far away from being certified. Would you elaborate a little just to "dummy proof" it for me blnewt? I.E. what kind of buffer/polisher/whatevr your talking about, or a thread that has all this info already (FYI for anybody that doesn't know this Mr. Brad Blnewt is the king of useful thread sharing/problem solving/DIY thread distributing).

 

For parts as small as calipers w/ the little valleys you'd have to hand polish or use a small buffing attachment on a drill. You'd typically start w/ a mild compound like Maguiars Ultimate compound followed by Ultimate Polish, this gives a real gloss shine. If you're happy w/ the finish after the clear is applied then just leave it be, the polish just takes the finish up a notch. Be sure to use a quality clear coat if possible, like a 2k cut-in clear, or Dupont Industrial clear coat, etc.