before
some sh!tty cell phone pics of my painted black grill
im really pleased with the way it turned out. i basically used 220 grit to sand off the paint. then cleaned off the dust. sprayed my first coat and let try. then i used a 400 grit and lightly sanded it. then i cleaned off the dust and i then sprayed that and let dry. i applied a third and final coat and that was it. the spray paint i used was duplicolor da1605.
1. clean your piece with light soapy water and dry with terry cloth or micro fiber towel instead of paper towels are paper towels willl leave bits of small particles behind.
2. sand with 220 grit sand paper. its not absolutely necessary to sand off every speck of the original paint.
3. clean dust particles off the piece and spray paint. i sprayed about 20-24 inches from the object and sprayed it left to right 5 times with even strokes.
4. let the piece dry. it took approx 1 hour to dry to a point where it wont smear to the touch. the temp was approx 70 degrees, humidity at around 40%.
5. after the first coat dries, sand it with 400 grit sand paper lightly. do not sand off the paint completely. clean the piece of dust debris.
6. apply your second coat
7. apply your third coat. let dry and youre done.
i did not use a clear coat to finish off, you may chose to do that if you wish. my guess is that it would help in the long run with flaking and chipping etc... i would recommend a light/low gloss finish as the bottom piece of the grill has a slight gloss.
for anyone looking for directions on how to remove front grill, theres a step by step tutorial on
grillcrafts website. thats where i checked. there are 4 screws holding the grill to the white inner grill and they are located on the bottom. one on each side of the pillar and one on each far side of the grill. you can find them by feel. after the screws are removed, you just pull/slide the grill forward.
special thanks for s'poresti for helping me via pm's on my project!!