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painted grill bars

11K views 44 replies 16 participants last post by  CocainePlatinum 
#1 ·
hey guys

has anyone plasti dip or painted the 2 center bars in the grill black?
 
#2 ·
I just did that the other day actually to see if I like how it looks before I go ahead and have them wrapped, left the shell chrome,



Still need to put it back on the truck

I was able to get the center bars off fairly easily but I could not figure out how to get the side "c" bars off without breaking any plastic, does anyone have any insight on how it's done?
 
#4 ·
What color truck do you have? Been thinking about how it would look with the outer shell done in black with glossifier against a black truck... Think I may just try it out and peel off if it doesn't match well.
 
#3 ·
Paint to match front end, plasti-dipped all the center bars black.

 
#5 ·
Looks great? The flat black compliments well.
 
#8 ·
I did it without disassembling the grill, just masked off the emblem and the outer bezel. Looks good with a red truck. I'll upload a pic later
 
#9 ·
Been too cold for me to mess with it lately... Will be trying it out when it warms up. Just not sure if I want to do the center and leave the outer chrome or do the opposite... Not sure how the black+glossifier would look against a black truck.
 
#10 ·
Painted the horizontal and C-bars
 

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#11 ·
Looks great! Is that just flat black or with the gloss? How'd you do the front emblem? Looks good against the black bars
 
#13 ·
Nice. You should think about doing your Door badges as well. I think it would balance out the chrome and flat black you've got going. Weathers getting nicer here and think I. Going to do my stock wheels and center bars as well. I did my mirror caps a while and they came out well. Just not sure about doing my door emblems since I've got a black truck.
 
#15 ·
Put 3-4 good coats on and it will typically peel off very easily in large pieces. I've gotten an entire wheel off in a single piece before
 
#16 ·
Yeah. It peels pretty nice. I did my mirror caps and wasn't happy with one, so I peeled it and re did it. Came off in one section. If it's cold out, it helps to have a hair drier or heat gun when you spray it, helps it smooth out before it dries. I made the mistake of trying to touch up a small spot when it was about 25* in my garage one night???didn't use the heater and it splattered out. When it's warm it's perfect.


How have your wheels held up? Any problems with rock chips or peeling?
 
#17 ·
If it is cold outside, I've found soaking the plastidip cans in warm water in the sink helps tremendously. Wrap the cans in an old shirt or something when you head outside.

My wheels have held up incredibly well, better than I expected. Only issue was when tires were dismounted, but it's plastidip so no tears were shed at the end of the day.
 
#18 ·
Yeah. I did that for the majority of the project. Just got lazy when I saw a spot that was thin. But, it's so easy to peel and redo, who cares. Did you do your wheels while they were still on the truck, or pull them off to do them? Guessing you went the trash bag route if you left them mounted. Any other pointers on the wheels, think I might do mine this weekend if the rain let's up.
 
#20 ·
I pulled two and left two on the truck just for my own reference...leave them on.

Skip the trash bags and go for plastic grocery bags. Easy to stuff through the stock wheel openings plus you get better coverage. I was using one grocery bag for every two slots in the wheel.

1) As with most any paint job, the key is in the prep. Get the wheels as clean as you can. You're already fighting an uphill battle trying to stick to the chrome.

2) I removed the center caps and sprayed separately. This was not necessary due to the size of the gap between the caps and wheels. The dip self-cuts and peels off the Ford logo in the caps easily.

3) Make none of the bags are in contact with the parts of the wheel you're looking to paint.

Post up a pic when you're done. I wish I'd taken a shot midway through the job with one wheel dipped and the other still chrome just to document the difference it made for SO little money.
 
#21 ·
Sweet. I'll post some up if the weather clears up this weekend. Still not sure if I'm going to do the center cap all black or leave the lug studs chrome to give a little contrast...then a gain if I don't like it I can just do it over...
 
#24 ·
Looks good. Did you use the Glossifier or just the black Dip? going to knock mine out this weekend.
 
#26 ·
Did mine today.


Land vehicle Vehicle Car Tire Automotive tire
 
#29 ·
Whats the price for the replacement?
 
#32 ·
The entire grill is pretty pricy if you where to buy it new from ford. I swapped mine for my chrome grill straight across. What I found interesting is its a XLT grill that has individual parts with black center bars rather then a XL grill where its all one piece. So in theory you should be able to buy the black center bars and replace those pieces in your grill without having to buy the whole thing
 
#39 ·
NICE STUFF THERE...I LIKE IT ALL....And Plasti-dip is great stuff !
 
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