Advice on painting/dechroming/vinyl wrapping front grille?

Hey, my '11 OR needs some attention up front. I've pulled off the chrome badges for satin black, and plasti-dipped the grill/emblem up front to see if I like the look. I would like to keep the grille black, but the plasti-dip is getting beat to hell (about 3 or 4 months old). Has anyone painted or had their grille vinyl wrapped? It looks to me like the chrome plastic is welded to the black plastic section of the grille. Being a honeycomb grille, I'd like to do something fairly reversible, but I'm not going to respray my grille and emblem every couple months. Any suggestions on what to do or not do?

 

You can buy an ebay grille, black and unpainted for cheap

 

I painted mine. I just sanded the chrome down pretty darn good, then used adhesion promotor, and primed, painted and cleared. Came out pretty damn good. That was almost a year ago, and it's holding up well.

 

Just sand, prime, repaint, and clear coat.

You can actually buy Toyota paint in aerosol cans to use so its a perfect match.

 

the Duplicolor stuff?

 

No you can buy actual factory paint in aerosol cans.

There are several brands that do it.

Duplicolor is what I would avoid unless its matched to the exact paint codes for Toyota.

Some colors are a bear to match:
Silver
Black
Reds

You don’t want people to walk by your truck and be able to tell you did a DIY grille lol

 

Can confirm about the match - even though I used a paint code match for Barcelona Red (3R3), the paint is definitely darker, as evidenced by the touchups I had to do on the hood

 

Did you use a Toyota paint pen or like a Duplicolor pen?

Factory paint is two stage, color paint followed by a clear coat on top (white and some blacks are single stage).

Paint pens are single stage and typically have a clear coat blended into the color. So sometimes even when its the exact color... it doesn’t match.

Metallic colors do not take to touch ups well. You’ll always see the touch up, especially if its a larger spot.

It’s a bummer.

 

It's actually a bit worse, Barcelona Red is a tri-color.

 

Supposedly soaking it in a tub of bleach or leave a bleach soaked rag on it will remove the chrome. I sanded mine before trying it, but I used a wheel and it ended up bubbling the chrome.

 

...
and that folks is why we don’t buy metallic reds.

 

...but it's so purdy!

 

Yeah the spots on my hood are pretty evident, but at least it wont rust, and its not like it looks like bondo'd garbage either, ill just try to stay on top of any paint chips and keep it waxed.

 

Only if I knew! I shoulda gotten the rally blue, but I wanted a darker blue that wasn't available for 2010 I wanted a dark blue. I guess in reality I should have gotten white and the paint would be ez to fix.

 

Yeah no. Buy white.
Blue is horrible too. Especially if you don’t polish regularly. That bright blue oxidizes almost as bad as red.

Voodoo blue is being released in the TRD Pros next year. It’s like the blazing blue pearl in a non-metallic. That would be better.
That is if you want to drive around in a blue rasberry colored truck LOL.

White is not only the easiest color to do touch ups, it’s the cheapest color to repair because in most cases it never requires blending and feathering to match. You can just repaint the panel and be on your way.

 

Only downside to white is it looks like another fleet vehicle The green from 2010 might have been nice and pretty unique too. I still like my red, and the paint is far from bad shape. I've been negligent over the past few years with kids and stuff and I let some rock chips go to where they began to rust, so I had to dig them out and open the wounds up I'm going to try to make a better effort to keep things polished and waxed going forward. Now my aluminum rims are starting to get cancer spots on them!

 

#1. My bomb ass truck looks nothing like a fleet truck


#2 I love the Spruce Mica. But its a dark metallic... almost as bad as black.

#3 use a sealer not a wax. Waxes are horribly time consuming and last maybe a few weeks. Use a sealer that will last about a year.

#4 I think you found yourself a really good reason to get yourself some new wheels.
I highly recomend the 4Runner TRD Pro wheels. The grey looks great with red.

 

Just wanted to share some of my input. You can buy the paint from an online vendor called automotive touch up.

I would sand and primer (adhesion promoter is for flexy plastic parts like bumpers and assists in flexing, where the grill does not need adhesion promoter), flash dry and paint two base color coats. After about 30-45 minutes, use 2 PART CLEARCOAT ( Spraymax 2k ). The clearcoat is what will make the entire job stand out. Ive never used a more resilient clearcoat. I painted a myriad of bumpers in the last few years and spraymax 2k resists all rock chips, petroleum and gas chemicals. Not to mention it really makes your base coat pop. Don't waste time with plastidip or vinyl wrap, where you will have to redo it after a few months. Spend some extra time to do the job correctly and you wont ever have to go back to repaint.

 

I am kind of afraid of colormatching my grill because of the possible diff between what I get in the can vs what my 8 year old un-garaged paint is... any recommendations for a black? Figure the black and red may look pretty good..

 

I removed all the chrome from my rig, and had the grille wrapped with the truck. It has been wrapped for over 2 years, still holding up well.