How are the grills holding up to rock chips? Is a clear coat necessary? I've heard people say you don't need it and some say you do?

 

Wow what a ***, he stole my DIY, those are my pics and my part of my DIY write up.

I figured I'd paint my grill black, well actually I tried smoke metal first but didn't like it. For anyone else who has had this idea heres a write up.

1. First remove the grill from the car (thats a pain in the a$$)

2. Sand the grill down with 100 grit sandpaper, here it is half sanded



Heres a close up:



Completely sanded:



3. Apply the first coat of primer, I used Dupli-Color filler primer



4. Apply 2nd coat:



This is my attempt at smoke metal if anyone was interested, came out kinda flat:



5. First coat of Black (used Dupli-Color high temp Gloss Black:



6. 3rd coat of Black:



7. 1st coat of Clear-coat Dupli-Color wheel covering:



8. After the 3rd coat of clear-coat is dry:



With the Mt. Fuji symbol back on:



Back on the car:

 

WOW, he stole your DIY

WHO does that????

thanks for the more detailed write up man. Can you fill me in on your wheels? Powder Coat? what color? have more pics?

from the looks of it, that is the gunmetal look i wanted to go for.

 

Question to the grill guru's:

If I already painted my grill, can I just re-sand it down and paint it again?
I got two different anwers so far...

 

i would re-sand, re-primer, re-adhesion promote, re-paint. in that order, but yes, you can do this no prob.

 

what kind of sand paper 100 grit?

 

that's a little rough, use something a little less abrasive then smooth it out with like 800.

 

ok the wheel have been painted by me. I wanted a gun metal color so I took flat black and put clear coat over it.

You can re-paint the grill, it will probably look better the 2nd time around. I would re-sand and clean then just paint then clear coat if you want. If you use gloss paint you can probably get away without clear coat.

 

Heres more of the wheels

 

Hi all,

I'm trying to black out the grille using the guide, and for the most part have been following it to the T. I'm using dupli-color flat black (regular car paint), and for some reason, the more I apply it, the more I get these faded gray spots in the paint. In other words, there are random splotches of paint where it's lighter, so I try to paint over it with a fresh coat, but instead of covering it up, it just makes the splotch bigger. I have no idea wtf is going on here. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Roger

 

It's most likely from the way you sanded it. Remember that any defects that show when you apply the paint is because of the prep work.

 

Roger: I had that happen too, just let it dry then re-sand it and clean it, then repaint and thy should go away, or there will be less noticeable at least.

 

Alright, thanks guys. I guess my sanding was uneven. Should I be sanding down all the way down to expose the dark plastic?

 

Also, don't forget to go over it with a finer grit to smoothen everything out.

 

Great, thanks. Appreciate it.