Painted Stock Grill and Headlight Surround

[chad9f9]

My truck came stock with the chrome headlight surround and gray grill. Not really a fan of chrome or the plain looking gray grill so I decided to paint it to match the body color. Check with a local paint shop in Austin but they wanted $200 so I decided to do it myself.

I went to Autozone and picked up 2 cans of dupli-color Amazon Green paint to match my trucks body color, 1 can of adhesion promoter, 1 can of semi gloss black, 2 cans of clear.

I pulled the grill off and scuffed it up with some sand paper then washed and dried it. After that I did 2 light coats of the adhesion promoter and followed it with 3 light coats of paint and 2 light coats of clear.

Here is the grill before.

Here is after.

Total cost for supplies was under $30. Took me about 4 hours to do. I think it came out pretty nice.

 

[Thermo]

Chad, I did the same thing on my truck. Granted, I took a more difficult way in an attempt to give the paint something better to grasp on to. I too my grille and then use a heat source and the chrome peels right off after striking it with a little bit of heat (you can see the chrome release from the plastic). After stripping all the chrome off, I then did something very similar to what you did in painting. The only other thing I did was I cut the grille fins out on mine and replaced it with some fine mesh to give my truck a slightly different look.

 

[ydopen]

Rite on!!! that Chrome Sux!!! I did the same thing but purchased a aftermarket paintable grill off ebay.

 

[chad9f9]

Chad, I did the same thing on my truck. Granted, I took a more difficult way in an attempt to give the paint something better to grasp on to. I too my grille and then use a heat source and the chrome peels right off after striking it with a little bit of heat (you can see the chrome release from the plastic). After stripping all the chrome off, I then did something very similar to what you did in painting. The only other thing I did was I cut the grille fins out on mine and replaced it with some fine mesh to give my truck a slightly different look.

That's interesting. I think I would have done it that way if I knew I the chrome would peel off. Does the chrome come off in one piece after heating?

 

[Canadian Expy]

Looks Good

 

[alaskanexpy]

i'm just trying to track down a f-150 grill thats painted and have it done well i get some other stuff painted. i always worry about paint sticking to chrome.

looks great though!

 

[SourMashII]

That is my favorite element of my Z71. Body color grille and bumpers..

Looks great!

 

[GAINMOB]

looks good

 

[rtbrjason]

Nice! Black grill looks way more aggressive and nice job matching up and paint on the chrome. I'm considering doing the black grill on mine. It's the light green/tan trimmed though so not sure how the black will look.

 

[Thermo]

Chad, no, it will not come off as 1 big piece. You end up working bit by bit. not the fastest job, but if you are worried about the paint sticking, it is the only way to go unless you can get your hands on a pre-painted one like what came on the EBs or the other limited edition X's.

 

[jstrut]

nice work

 

[Expedited]

Now that it's been a few months, how has the finish held up? Any chipping or adhesion issues?

 

[chad9f9]

To this date I have not had any peeling or chipping.
Here is a pic. Excuse the dirt haven't had a chance to wash it.

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