Has anyone painted thier stock plastic grille?? I was thinking about painting it black.

 

I painted mine black and added a mesh grill instead of the plasit slats, there some pics in my gallery if interested. I think it looks better than stock, but to each their own.

 

^^There's a how to on this I'm pretty sure - congrats on 200th post!

 

buddy of mine painted his black... spraycan... looked like ass... and he got raped by the dealer for the spraypaint when he traded it in...

 

Here's that how to - this guy used spray paint, too - guess it can look alright if you take your time? I'd just assume take it to a paint shop, couldn't cost that much for them to do it.
https://www.cobaltss.net/forums/show...ghlight=grille

Here's a pretty good pic, too - from RYCobaltSS. I think it looks pretty good, not sure if it's better than stock.. maybe a bit tougher.

 

Heres an old picture of my car with the grill:

 

Hey DTM you don't have any pics of it painted, right? You ever get around to taking pics of that hood with the mesh painted? I'd like to see.

 

Yea, I do have a couple I think. It looks 100x better painted black, believe me haha. I try to get some new pictures this weekend and post them up, a few things have changed since this pic.

 

i painted the grilles on my BMW. there are a few tricks to it, but it can come out nice.

i used dupi color paints.

adhesion promoter
flat black
clear coat.

pretty simple, clean it super well
some of the promoter, a few coats of the blackm very very light. let it dry, few of the clear, again super light. and then viola.

just follow the directions on the can.

 

Awesome, I'd like to see. Did you pay full price for it? (Edit- these were for DTM)

I don't mind doing that with the exception that they (RK) just sold 2 G5 hoods on eBay like last week for under $300 each, and they're selling them buy it now for like $525. Kind of unfair, almost.

The more I look at RYCobalt's painted center strip, the more I like it. I think it could look really good with the RK hood, with the mesh there painted black as well.. I'm definitely going to remove that center section of the lower grill too that protects the 2nd SS/SC radiator. Looks lame with the slats in it.

My 'Balts silver - what ya think?

 

I got a discount for being a .net member, but other than that, yea full price. I think the hood would look great on any 'Balt. The mesh grills would set it off nicely with the silver. I also have the headlight housing painted black and tinted windows, so everything ties in very nicely.

 

I think I'm going to leave my headlight alone for now - maybe a bit later. But painting this grille is something I'm thinking I may want to do this weekend - I've never liked that silver (or red, yellow, whatever..) bar across it, always thought it looked kinda feminine. I think this really means up the grille area - kinda like the old muscle look, big black vortex with a shiney bowtie in the middle, diggin it.

I've been spending $$ on all kinds of interior trinkets this week because it's so nasty outside I don't want to touch the car..

 

Check out mine for an idea.

https://www.cobaltss.net/gallery/sho...&searchid=5860

 

I hear ya, the ice and snow is finally starting to melt here, now its raining . But best of luck with whatever you choose to do with the grill. Be sure to take some pics too! I'll try to get some when I get my car back for everyone to see.

 

Yeah, I like that. Did you sand and prime before you painted or just go right over?

 

I sanded it down where I cut the slats out at since it wasn't perfect. You may also have to use Bondo to fix any imperfections. And yes I primed it with two coats and then three coats of black. You can clear coat if thats what your going for, but I liked it less glossy.

 

Thinking I may price it and just it pro-done when I order/paint my hood so all the paint will match.. not sure..

 

Uh... yeah... that's "My Buddy"... he's from around here... and believe me... no offense to him... but it looked like ass in person... in a small pic like that from 20 feet away it looks... black... he also has a SS/SC wing and the stock 17's painted black...

he tried to trade that 2.4 in the same day I was at the dealer trading my 2.4 in... we both had the same car... roughly same miles... dealer offered him $2000 less for his than mine...

don't tell me it wasn't b/c of all the spraypaint...

 

Hmm, yeah. I think I'll do like I thought and let a pro do it.

 

You know - I'm bumping this for the vendors/creative minds good with plastic.
I was just looking at my grille and I can't think of any reason why you couldn't make a plastic piece exactly the same color (and preferably type of plastic) as the stock inserts to go over our central-grille bars.
What I'm saying - a thin piece of plastic that just snaps on that center piece, probably with some fasteners in the back. It could be thinned out in the area where the fasteners of the bowtie goes, or actually have a bowtie shape recess in it so that it fits perfectly.
That'd save people from spray-painting or vinyling over their grilles. Anyone else interested in this maybe? I'm going to email some vendors..