Believe it or not, I didn't. Chrome was not coming off at all, so I just scuffed it up as much as I could, as it wasn't scratching very easily, primed it, twice, and painted. Seems to have stuck pretty well, however I need to put at least 3 more coats of clear on it.
That's probably not a bad idea. I woulda tried it if I knew of that trick earlier. I tried sanding it with 150 grit, and it really took some effort to scratch it. Instead of using the adhesion promoter first, I used a sandable primer to get a good sticky base over the chrome. It seemed to work pretty well, truck went through a touchless car wash this morning, and the paint survived the high pressure water.
looks good man i see you color matched your grille hope its adhered good grilles take a beating i had some adhesion problems when i color matched mine had to wet sand it after 2 months and spray another coat.
Wow, bezel and radio looks great. If i can find one of those for less than the $700+ i'm seeing them go for on ebay then i'm definately going that route when it's time to install my stereo...love the factory/functional look.
Well, I got a hitch receiver finally, and a new cover!
And, as promised pat, pics of the grille in the day time. I gotta say I wasn't too sure if I was crazy about this, but i've had several people say they like it.
I did the grill myself, so 13 bucks in paint and clear coat. I still have the wind deflector in the garage, it's not quite done, ran out of clear coat. The grille and deflector is ALOT of surface area to cover.
man i really want to paint my grille lol. i love how the lights came out seriously, they look great color matched and the reflectors smoked really breaks it up! ill let you be the test again to see how long the grille lasts before i try to tackle it lol
well, even if the grille doesn't last (doing good so far, been through 3 car washes with no issue) it's not hard at all to re do. very very simple to take apart and prep and do.
I've had a bit of moisture in my passenger side headlight, however luckily enough I can visually see where I missed a section with RTV. Going to take that apart and seal it up possibly tomorrow.
Hmm if I get another warm day then I might try and tackle the grille. How many coats did you put on and clear too? I'm really going to tackle color matching the headlights too
The grill takes about 3 good coats of paint, and tons and tons of clear coat. probably get 2 cans of clear coat. I've been through a can and a half, and it's not quite where my mirrors and door handles are yet.
lol i have 5 cans of clear sitting in the garage from when i ATTEMPTED to paint my mirrors.... hahah and also i bought every can of pxr paint i swear, ive been to 8 different stores and they had none or i bought them out...but that was 3 weeks ago