There are many ways to go about determining whether or not do a particular mod. Once the decision is made, there are often different ways to go about doing the mod. In my case, 'To Black Out, or Not to Black Out' my grille.
A brief history -
There are more than one black 4th Gen Ram in my community, and every once in a while, I would see one that really caught my eye. After a few sightings, I finally figured out it was the grille.....NO CHROME. Upon closer inspection, I realized it has an R/T grille, but more important, it is completely Black.
Phase 1 - (Testing) - 28 May 2011
As I was unsure of how this would look with the horizontal slat grille, decided to do a 'non-permanent' test. I started to apply strips of satin backed duct tape to each slat. It's didn't take long to figure out this was not going to work doing this with the grille in the truck, so I took the grille off and removed the insert. Being the first time, this took FOREVER! The insert is installed with the clips from H3LL! I then applied strips of black tape to each slate in the insert, and re-installed it. The next day, I got a real good look at it, and determined this was exactly what I wanted -
So off to the paint store to get the 'right' stuff, and on to......
Phase 2 - (Paint Grille.....1st time) - 30 May 2011
On the recommendation of the paint store, I purchased a can of Duplicolor Wax and Grease remover, and a can of Duplicolr Trim Paint in satin black. I removed the grille again...and the insert...and following the directions from both Duplicolor and the paint store, I cleaned the grille to perfection and painted it. Installed it back in the truck and 'WOW', it looked great! Even the wife was impressed with the look.
Next day I made a 300mile highway trip in the rain to pickup family from the airport in Winnipeg. On my return home, I was 'Horrified' by how bad the grille looked. About 25% of the paint was missing! :wow:
Phase 3 - (Paint Grille......2nd...... & 3rd time) - 2 June 2011
I took the truck to the paint store for their evaluation. Without going into details....they had no answer.
I took the grille to the car wash and stripped the paint off the grille in under 60 seconds....all the paint....every bit!
I then proceeded to do all the same stuff, but prior to painting, I washed the grille with acetone. Painted again, and.......FAIL!
Phase 4 - (Paint Grille ...... 4th time) - 3 June 2011
Car wash - Took 3 mintes this time....an improvement I guess. LOL
Went and got some 'Tried & Proven' stuff -
After you remove the grille assembly from the truck, your left with this -
Here is the 'painted' grille insert after a few minutes at the car wash -
Although I now have the tried and proven stuff, decided to use the chromed area in the center as a test area; 3 sections
Left - no sanding + adhesion promoter
Center - Sanded with 320grit + adhesion promoter
Right - Red scotch pad scuffing + adhesion promoter
Test 1 - Car wash (this completely removed the left side)
Test 2 - Screw driver scratch (both remaining sections scratched equally well)
Test 3 - Finger nail scratch (Center stood up, right did not)
Test 4 - Scotch pad (Center stood up, right did not)
Test 5 - 320 grit sand paper (Actually took some work to sand through the center :smileup
Tests confirmed that agressive sanding was the way to go, so 320 grit sand paper it is! (All the professional painters on the forum are too stunned to even laugh :158
Here you can see the results. The right side of the pic is sanded, the left is yet to be done.
Finished the sanding, cleaned and cleaned and re-cleaned with Grease & Wax remover, followed by paint thinner, let dry for 15 minutes and applied 5 light coats of SEM trim paint and set it in the sun to bake. Heres a couple pix showing the paint drying -
After about 5 hours baking in the sun, I introduced the insert to the grille surrond -
And since the surrond was accepting of the newly painted insert, I assembled it for the 63rd time (or there abouts) and ended up with this -
This was completed on the 3rd of June 2011, and so far so good. Been to a high pressure car wash a couple of times, and the paint is sticking. It does have a couple of very tiny chips from stones, etc. and I will likely repaint it and finish with 'Satin' clear coat, that I didn't even know existed, until a few days ago.
( A NOTE to the Grille Insert Activists - No grille insert tabs were broken in this grille painting adventure. No tools were thrown in a violent fit of rage, and less the normal number of 'explicits' were voiced throughout the ordeal. The writer can now remove the grille assembly from a 4th generation Ram in under 30 seconds, blindfolded, wearing a straight jacket, without tools; and is considering going for a Guiness record )
A brief history -
There are more than one black 4th Gen Ram in my community, and every once in a while, I would see one that really caught my eye. After a few sightings, I finally figured out it was the grille.....NO CHROME. Upon closer inspection, I realized it has an R/T grille, but more important, it is completely Black.
Phase 1 - (Testing) - 28 May 2011
As I was unsure of how this would look with the horizontal slat grille, decided to do a 'non-permanent' test. I started to apply strips of satin backed duct tape to each slat. It's didn't take long to figure out this was not going to work doing this with the grille in the truck, so I took the grille off and removed the insert. Being the first time, this took FOREVER! The insert is installed with the clips from H3LL! I then applied strips of black tape to each slate in the insert, and re-installed it. The next day, I got a real good look at it, and determined this was exactly what I wanted -
So off to the paint store to get the 'right' stuff, and on to......
Phase 2 - (Paint Grille.....1st time) - 30 May 2011
On the recommendation of the paint store, I purchased a can of Duplicolor Wax and Grease remover, and a can of Duplicolr Trim Paint in satin black. I removed the grille again...and the insert...and following the directions from both Duplicolor and the paint store, I cleaned the grille to perfection and painted it. Installed it back in the truck and 'WOW', it looked great! Even the wife was impressed with the look.
Next day I made a 300mile highway trip in the rain to pickup family from the airport in Winnipeg. On my return home, I was 'Horrified' by how bad the grille looked. About 25% of the paint was missing! :wow:
Phase 3 - (Paint Grille......2nd...... & 3rd time) - 2 June 2011
I took the truck to the paint store for their evaluation. Without going into details....they had no answer.
I took the grille to the car wash and stripped the paint off the grille in under 60 seconds....all the paint....every bit!
I then proceeded to do all the same stuff, but prior to painting, I washed the grille with acetone. Painted again, and.......FAIL!
Phase 4 - (Paint Grille ...... 4th time) - 3 June 2011
Car wash - Took 3 mintes this time....an improvement I guess. LOL
Went and got some 'Tried & Proven' stuff -
After you remove the grille assembly from the truck, your left with this -
Here is the 'painted' grille insert after a few minutes at the car wash -
Although I now have the tried and proven stuff, decided to use the chromed area in the center as a test area; 3 sections
Left - no sanding + adhesion promoter
Center - Sanded with 320grit + adhesion promoter
Right - Red scotch pad scuffing + adhesion promoter
Test 1 - Car wash (this completely removed the left side)
Test 2 - Screw driver scratch (both remaining sections scratched equally well)
Test 3 - Finger nail scratch (Center stood up, right did not)
Test 4 - Scotch pad (Center stood up, right did not)
Test 5 - 320 grit sand paper (Actually took some work to sand through the center :smileup
Tests confirmed that agressive sanding was the way to go, so 320 grit sand paper it is! (All the professional painters on the forum are too stunned to even laugh :158
Here you can see the results. The right side of the pic is sanded, the left is yet to be done.
Finished the sanding, cleaned and cleaned and re-cleaned with Grease & Wax remover, followed by paint thinner, let dry for 15 minutes and applied 5 light coats of SEM trim paint and set it in the sun to bake. Heres a couple pix showing the paint drying -
After about 5 hours baking in the sun, I introduced the insert to the grille surrond -
And since the surrond was accepting of the newly painted insert, I assembled it for the 63rd time (or there abouts) and ended up with this -
This was completed on the 3rd of June 2011, and so far so good. Been to a high pressure car wash a couple of times, and the paint is sticking. It does have a couple of very tiny chips from stones, etc. and I will likely repaint it and finish with 'Satin' clear coat, that I didn't even know existed, until a few days ago.
( A NOTE to the Grille Insert Activists - No grille insert tabs were broken in this grille painting adventure. No tools were thrown in a violent fit of rage, and less the normal number of 'explicits' were voiced throughout the ordeal. The writer can now remove the grille assembly from a 4th generation Ram in under 30 seconds, blindfolded, wearing a straight jacket, without tools; and is considering going for a Guiness record )