Plasti-Dipped My Fading Front Grill (w/pics)

[Jarred767]

So, I plasti-dipped my front grill a couple weeks ago and finally got around to posting about it. It looked absolutely terrible as the "chrome" was chipped all over the place and the center plastic piece was so faded and worn it was ridiculous. I debated just painting it, but I figured I'd try plasti-dip first and if I didn't like it, I can always peel it off and go the painting route with some trim paint.

Some before pics to show you what I was dealing with (ignore the paint chips as that's for another day):

I cleaned everything well, and and taped off the headlights and surrounding body. I also covered the engine bay with cardboard to make sure no rubber plasti-dip got in there from above.

This shows just how bad of shape the plastic grill was in; you can also see cardboard behind the grill to keep the plasti-dip from getting into the engine compartment from the front end.

I sprayed 5 or 6 thin coats with about 15 minutes inbetween, let it dry for a couple hours, and then started peeling the tape off and cleaning it all up. I love the finished look so much better and so far it has held up perfectly.

If your front grill looks as bad as mine did, this is a pretty easy and cheap fix.

 

[DjDom]

Looks good. Now paint your bumper trim/valence black to match. It'll really finish the look of the front end.

 

[Jarred767]

Thanks Djdom, that looks nice on your truck. That is actually part of my next my next "fun" project on the car. I already did the wiper arms, but next are the front and rear bumpers, cowels, B pillars, roof racks, and a couple other little fades trim pieces around the car. Slowly, but surely.

 

[Maniak]

That came out nice...

I have 4 gallons of "dip" on the way so I can dip the Honda as the paint/clear is pretty much gone from being in Arizona...

Once I do that I'll drip a few things on the explorer so it looks at least 1/2 decent.. well as decent as it can look without any straight "body" panels..

~Mark

 

[nick6053]

Nice work

 

[Josh2021]

Looking good, the best part is if you get tired of it you can peel it off.
I painted my roof and still need to do my hood. I'm thinking about doing all the trim while I'm at it.