Repainting Grille

by **crossroad** » Sun Aug 02, 2009 7:41 pm

I've seen it on lot of solaras and noticed that the chrome paint on the grille has chipped out. Has anyone repainted it and has some advice on how to? And what paint/primer/protective did you use? Initially I tried looking for krylon's plastic spray paint, but could only find a silvery finish and I want the mirrored chrome finish!

Website · by **99BlackSandv6** » Sun Aug 02, 2009 7:47 pm

First of all you will want to strip the chrome off, I haven't done it but a lot of guys say that if you soak it in 409 cleaner the chrome will come of. It is really hard to get most kinds of paint to stick to chrome. Be sure to clean the grill well before you start painting.
Second thing, if you want a "mirrored chrome finish" don't count on getting it out of a can. Think about going with something else, black or body color usually looks best.
Best of luck to you with this.

by **yaddadaimsayin** » Sun Aug 02, 2009 9:07 pm

common sense can tell you that you can't 'spray' on mirrored chrome...

by **Ilovemylara** » Sun Aug 02, 2009 9:10 pm

You wanna a mirrored finish? Buy a new grill. IMO it looks better painted black though.

by **solara90** » Sun Aug 02, 2009 9:51 pm

i painted mine but it wasn't the mirror finish.. it was just the dull grey.. i cleaned it up and sprayed it black. Its held up for over 4 months now

by **mazen222** » Mon Aug 03, 2009 5:31 am

yaddadaimsayin wrote:common sense can tell you that you can't 'spray' on mirrored chrome...

ya... i can confirm that.

I wrote a mini tutorial somewhere here when i painted mine. Looked good back then. I used 3 coates of paint (chromy) and 3 coats of clear coating.

1 year later, it's starting to peel off... I didnt take then old chrom off though... too much work.

IMO, get a new one

by **crossroad** » Mon Aug 03, 2009 2:33 pm

there must be a way! im not going to spend $60+ on a new grille!

by **mazen222** » Mon Aug 03, 2009 2:53 pm

here's the tutorial i wrote

http://www.solaraguy.com/viewtopic.php? ... highlight=

i was happy with the results... looks much better than it did. But i would still have prefered a real chrom look

by **crossroad** » Mon Aug 03, 2009 2:58 pm

thanks, maybe mine will work better since i stripped all the paint off first. maybe a plastic primer will stop it from chipping.

by **Rm.Solara** » Mon Aug 03, 2009 3:38 pm

My grill was schipping off also so i just painted it black and i think it looks a little bit better. Here is a pic:
[img][img]http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x146/MaXvtec23/Solara.jpg[/img][/img]

by **crossroad** » Mon Aug 03, 2009 4:01 pm

ive been considering painting all black, but im not sure it would look just as good on a red solara...

by **mac-phisto** » Wed Aug 05, 2009 3:20 am

well, it looks pretty good on my green solara. i didn't paint the emblem like rm.solara did though. i covered it up with a bunch of masking tape before i hit it w/ the paint - i'm pretty happy with the results. looks hella better than when it was all chipped up. sorry bout the crappy pic.

by **Chinky420** » Wed Aug 05, 2009 9:09 am

if you want the chrome look, you're gonna have to pony up the cash to get a new one

if you want a cheap alternative, then you can strip the chrome and paint the grille black.

those are pretty much the options.

by **LEE337** » Wed Aug 05, 2009 1:32 pm

crossroad wrote:there must be a way! im not going to spend $60+ on a new grille!

If you go cheap, your gona end up with cheap. (with the exception of a few that know what they are doin)
I spent $200+ on my grille (fabbed) and $100+ on the paint.
Well worth it in the end.

by **BLACK V6** » Wed Aug 05, 2009 1:38 pm

I also painted mine all black. It is a bit dirty in this pic though. These are the results I got with 2 coats of satin black and 2 coats of clear. Seems to look okay IMO.

Repainting Grille

Repainting Grille

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