Painted the front grill on my 97 Mountaineer black

First some of you may remember these two pictures. After installing my billet fuel door I photoshoped one of the pictures I took of it. I changed the grill from chrome to a matte black color, leaving the emblem chrome. After that photoshop picture, painting the grill went from a "that would be cool" to something that has to be done. But I had to wait for winter to pass, so I could paint it outside.

So first the before picture and the photoshoped picture.

And here is the final result

It actually ended up looking pretty close to the photoshop picture. I do need to redo it though. From heating it up to remove the chrome, some wrinkles were left in the plastic. So I need to do some sanding on it. But I did not have time to do a proper sanding job yesterday. So I just finished it up and I will clean it up in a couple of weeks. It looks great from 10 feet back though

I will get more pictures of it later this week.

 

[aldive]

Looks great; I like it.

 

[celly]

I definitely prefer the black. Nice job.

 

[Sams01XplrSprt]

looks awesome 98 mounty I give it 2 thumbs up great job and keep up the good work

 

[ExplorerDMB]

The painted grille looks a whole lot better. You did a good job.

-Drew

 

[98 mounty]

Thanks guys, I am really happy with the results. The chrome grill on the black looked a little tacky. Now with the black grill it has a much more aggressive look to it.

And thanks to everyone that gave their advice on how to paint the grill. As for the paints I used. I picked up Dupli-colors adhesion promoter primer and applied 3 coats of that. And then I used some black Dupli-color bumper and trim paint. I am hopping since this is a bumper paint, it will hold up to every day driving.

 

[96limitedX]

looks nice. but i would have liked to see gloss paint used. but anyway it looks much better mono..but then again im kinda bais..lol

 

[Rhett]

That looks great black! I give you a thumbs up...

 

[94_explorer]

I like it too! Nice.

 

[rino351]

that looks Much better

 

[exploder xlt]

I have a red explorer do you think a black grille would look good on that? any chance you could photoshop a black grill on a red explorer"? any feedback would be great thanks

 

[Paraphoe]

Holy old thread. 5 1/2 years later we get a bump. haha.

Might have some luck posting your request here:

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=142

 

[ragajungle]

Jessie Ventura was governor of MN when this thread was posted... tee (then a hee) But the black grill does look good

 

[exploder xlt]

haha ya i didnt notice the date until after i posted

 

[snuugans]

Oh that's too sweeet! I wish my Mountaineer was black. It's white, I wonder how it would look with a black grill.. hmmmm I think a white grill might look too girly.. I might as well paint it ###hsia

 

[Joe Dirt]

Shouldn't be an issue, you picked a f.uchsia smilie...

 

[larivera1989]

the black grille is looking nice!