Painting stock grille shell.

[Stroked68]

Anyone have any luck or know someone that has painted their grille shell? Im thinkin of either painting it black or white. Its the chrome shell and didnt know if its paintable or not. Is it worth the trouble painting it? I've read online that you can buy an adhisive promoter then just use regular spray paint. I have some color matched spray paint from o'reillys I had mixed up so i got good paint. Didnt know if it is worth painting or how it would look.

 

[BIG JOE]

I've had good luck useing 80 grit sand paper to knock the shine down to a dull buff.. then 120 grit to smooth it out.. then one light tack coat.. followed by 2 cover coats, 24 hours apart.

Better yet ? Look around for a OE Black grill from a F-250/350 "Custom" cab.... from your year ?



Joe

 

[angus]

I wont be much help. On my first Superduty, it was an XL truck with the black grille, and I bought a billet grille for it, and had to cut out the center of the grill just leaving the surround. I took it to a local body shop, and they scuffed, primed and painted it bolor matched black for 60 bucks. It looked great and really set the truck off.

The truck I have now, Im going to get an 05-07 xl black grille if I can find one and trim it to fit my truck(not hard at all) and have it camo dipped! and put it on. It will be different that any ive seen and go great with camo accents Im putting on the rest of the truck.

 

[Stroked68]

I've sanded plastic pieces before and sometimes its hard to get all the scratches out. I probably didnt spend enough time actually sanding it to get all the scratches out. But that promoter stuff looks like it works really well. Anyone use it before? Supposedly it takes the sanding part out of the equation?

 

[Dogman]

I would think it would be better to get one thats not painted from the dealer or other place. Then to try to paint the chrome. I have done it and it's a pain in the back side. All you need is the chrome to chip and it will start to lift the paint and chrome off.

 

[Stroked68]

Finally had some time to snap some pics. I painted my grille. It was the chrome one with the charcoal middle part. I cleaned it real good, sprayed that bull dog adhesive promoter, then sprayed duplicolor truck bed liner on it for a durable and textured finish to match the rest of the truck. It has like 3 or 4 coats of the bed liner on it. Of course the grille is nasty now since I havnt washed the truck in months due to the nasty conditions here right now. What yall think? I was gonna paint it all white but the paint I had mixed didnt match my truck at all. Might paint it later when I get a billet grille for it.