Painting your grill all black

[Kswiss]

I'm going to post up this thread because I had difficulty understanding everybodies techniques on how to paint your grill. I searched a lot to do this, and the stuff you guys wrote wasn't detailed enough for me to understand. I read a lot of posts that said "sand, primer, sand, paint , clearcoat etc...."some helped and some didn't . So this is for new club202.com members and new w202 owners. To paint your grill do the following....

get 1000 and 200 grit sand paper....dupli-color primer, dupli-color engine enamel gloss black, dupli-color clear coat ..... 1st - Sand down chrome pieces on the grill with 200 grit sand paper ....sand well...paint with 2 coats of primer.....wait 20-30 min for each coat....then WETSAND with 1000 grit sand paper very lighty...make sure it feels smooth.....spray 2-3 coats of engine enamel gloss black ...waiting 20-30 min for each coat...again WETSAND with 1000 grit very lightly....add about 4-5 more coats.....making sure you sand after each coat!!......let dry for 2 hours or so.....wetsand over paint with 1000 lightly...spray 4-5 coats of clearcoat...wetsand with 1000 grit after each coat....at 4th coat.....spray a little more than 1 coat...then wetsand againt with 1000 grit ..and spray on last coat......let dry for 2 days.......do not touch...slap on grill..

I got ALL this detailed info from a friendly member on this site, so i thank you for that!

If any of the directions are untrue..please correct me.

Also, this is the question i had and was hoping i can get other friendly club202 members to help with.....in the directions it says to use High Gloss Enamel Paint...
I was thinking to myself today....that black might not match very close to my black car. (I'm very picky about stuff like that) So i was wondering if i can get a close match to the cars color and spray it with that instead of the High Gloss enamel paint.....or should i just stick with the dupli-color paint?????

this is the paint that can match your cars color..or so they say at least....

http://www.paintworldinc.com/

you think its ok to use that paint instead?

[2phast]

I have painted many items on many of my cars myself, not that I am a rattle can expert, but I can share some thoughts.

If your going to paint any chrome item, it is best to have the item "de-chromed" that is, take it to a chromeing shop and have them remove the chrome down to the nicle plating (applies to grill frame). If your dealing with just the grill, then don't worry about the de-chromeing process.

1. First thing to do is clean the item, normal car soap and water.
2. Wear rubber surgical gloves to keep your body oils off of the cleaned item.
2. De-grease the item using de-greaser available at any auto paint speciality store.
3. Sand with 400 grit wet/dry paper (sand dry) and make sure you sand every spot.
4. Wipe down the item with a tack cloth (available at the auto paint supply outlet)
5. de-grease again
6. Paint the item with an adheasion promotor, three coats, about 15 minutes between each coat, no sanding.
7. Now your ready to paint.
8. 3-5 Light coats about 15 minutes apart, you don't want the paint to completely dry between coats but you don't want it wet either, the time depends upon outside conditions. You also need to paint your item away from the wind so dust and other foreign items don't get stuck in your paint. You also paint with long overlapping strokes. Start the spary a couple of inches before your item (keep the can 6-8 inches away from the item) and flow your spary all the way over your item and a couple of inches past it. You don't want to start/stop the spray (especially with a rattle can) on your object.

One last note, protect your health, go and purchase a expensive paint filtering mask from the auto paint supply store (one with replaceable filters) you don't want to be breathing the adheasion promotor, sanding dust or paint.

Using a standard primer is really optional and of course does not hurt, I have utilized both methods (above) and substituted the adheasion promotor with primer, both set of results were the same but IMO the adheasion promoter process seems to withstand rock chips better.

You don't need to wet sand anything here nor do you really need to clear coat anything. Rattle can paint is not designed for clear coating and most likely if you go this route, you will end up with a glossier look then what your after.

I have towerpaint.com color match and pressurize paint into rattle cans for me, their color match is very good.

Below are pictures of some items I have painted recently.

http://2phast.com/190e/mirror9.jpg
http://2phast.com/190e/mirror11.jpg

http://2phast.com/190e/euroimpact4.jpg
http://2phast.com/190e/euroimpact5.jpg

[FreeStyler]

I was wondering, i really suck at painting things so I was wondering how much would one of you guys charge if i gave you guys the supplies and grill to do the black out thing for me? Keep in mind that I would pay supply costs!:cool:

[mayagman]

Just as an addendum to this old post based on my recent experience. I just blacked out my stock grille and used the same process on my eyetrims, which is as follows.
I sanded all the chrome off down to the aluminium-esque underfinish. Its a slight difference in color, and lustre, and pretty easy to tell the difference when the chrome is gone..
I applied two coats of dupli-color adhesion promoter
I then sprayed on a thin dupli clear-coat ten minutes later.
After this, I let it dry nicely for about two hours indoors.
I then hit it with dupli-color gray primer, two coats, 15 minutes between.
Then, I let it dry for about five hours before hitting it with four good coats of dupli Gloss black engine enamel. I let it dry for 24hrs before touching it. Looks great.
The trouble started when I tried to apply clearcoat. After 48hrs, I decided to spray on clearcoat, so I tested it on my eyetrims. BAD IDEA! I figgured I'd need the clearcoat protection, but it ended up spider-webbing the paint into uselessness. good thing I didnt hit the grille with it! Take my advice, just stick with the black gloss and like it :]

[714guy]

i powder coated all the chrome pieces for the grill.

[C280 JR]

so did anybody buy the paint that was posted up by Kswiss in the first post, in curious cause i want to buy teh paint too

Elvir