Tips on painting my grille

[Jepsyy]

I bought a 1998 dodge ram 1500 a few weeks ago and the grille was originally black but has a lot of chip marks in it and I want to put a few new layers of black paint on it. Im just looking for some good tips or good paint to use thank you.

 

[WhiteExpress]

The best advice I can give you is PATIENCE and READ THE DIRECTIONS.

To fix a rock pitted surface, I would scuff the entire grill shell with 220 grit.
Once there is no more shiney paint anywhere, hit it with a high build or 'filler' primer.

This should fill in all the rock chips. Sand with a block, not your fingers.
This will give you a nice smooth surface to shoot color match paint on.
(I attempted to paint some black hood scoops with just 'gloss black' paint on a friend's '97 Ram and they didn't match, get colormatch.)
Paint a few coats, and then clear it.

Be sure with all the prime / paint / clear that you follow the recoat times.
Don't mess around with this or you open yourself to paint lifting and all sorts of other crap issues.
Also, make sure it's warm enough (even during the curing process) otherwise things get wonky.

Be patient, and you can get great results out of a rattle can!

 

[Jepsyy]

Thanks I will take my time I don't want It to look bad.

 

[Ramguy65]

Plasti dip it! Cheap and easy to do.

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk

 

[Jepsyy]

Plasti dip it! Cheap and easy to do.

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk

How long does the plasti dip last?

 

[Ramguy65]

Not sure. I did my grille and after about a year it still looked good. Like I said it's cheap to do. If it starts to chip just peel it off and re coat it.

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk

 

[Jepsyy]

Alright thank you ill start looking into that right now.

 

[dapepper9]

I plastidipped the pad on my front bumper and so far its help up great, also did the rear but don't have pics. This the setup for it, first pic is a wet spot to show contrast of when its wet vs dry (before plastidip btw) hard to tell in later pics, I can get more tomorrow tho if you'd like

Edit: click on my profile pic to go to my profile, theres a nice big pic of the truck on the home page, thats what it looked like before

 

[dapepper9]

just like painting, prep work is everything. With plastidip you don't have to primer or anything like that but the surface has to be clean (common sense) and try to make sure you mask off what you don't want done. Yes it comes off fairly easily with a sponge but I didn't feel like scrubbing my already bad paint lol

 

[Jepsyy]

Thanks for the help and pictures im pretty sure im going to plasti dip it thanks.

 

[dapepper9]

just be careful that its only been drying the final layer like 5 minutes when you start pulling tape off as it REALLY helps make sure you don't peel it up with the tape. Also, don't do this without adequate ventilation, and I mean adequate. I spent 6 hours nitpicking mine with both garage doors open and I'm pretty sure I'm going to get cancer at an early age lol

 

[gr8hntr]

After sanding or touching the area u want to paint wipe it down with carb medic
It drys it self in seconds and will allow the paint to stick better

 

[Austin On The Coast]

Do small light coats and go slow, let it dry good. I just got done painting and installing my hood scoops, wasn't going to match but got a flat black, did several coats and it looks awesome