Hey all. Been a while since I've dropped by so I figured I'd post this up here for everyone's reference. About 18 months ago I decided to black out all the chrome on my truck with plastidip. I did the emblems and grille surround, and it turned out great. Fast forward to now, and two Colorado winters (and the resulting shit-tons of gravel being kicked up) had wreaked absolute havoc on the dip job. It looked like someone took a shotgun and blasted my grille with chrome pellets lol.
So, not wanting to peel all of the old dip off and redo it, only to have to redo it AGAIN sooner rather than later, I decided to scout out a black replacement grille. Being the cheap ass that I am, fleabay was the first stop...and I found this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/301010296937?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT
For $86 shipped, I didn't have high hopes but it looked like exactly what I wanted. It showed up yesterday and I was pleasantly surprised at the quality. It was packaged amazingly well too, and came with a new emblem mount. Getting the OEM grille off was a complete ***** until i figured out what I was doing wrong, then it was smooth sailing. Fitment of the new grille wasn't perfect, but really close. I just removed a few extra unnecessary tabs along the top, and the grille pieces clicked right in. Once the bolts were reinstalled, it was rock solid. For less than $100, I'm really happy with it. I'll get better pics tomorrow, it was getting dark.
It did strike me as odd that when ordering a black grille, they included a chrome emblem mount. I had planned on painting it to black it out, but after installing it that one little bit of chrome is kinda growing on me. Thoughts? Leave it alone or black it out?
I've got a black billet bowtie one the way too, the one in the pics is the OEM bowtie with dip on it. Anyway, thanks for looking, and sorry for the novel.
Edit:
Here's a video I made that does a comparison between the OEM and replacement grille, and gives some tips on swapping the grille out.
[yt]CEKE_EnVRBk[/yt]
So, not wanting to peel all of the old dip off and redo it, only to have to redo it AGAIN sooner rather than later, I decided to scout out a black replacement grille. Being the cheap ass that I am, fleabay was the first stop...and I found this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/301010296937?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT
For $86 shipped, I didn't have high hopes but it looked like exactly what I wanted. It showed up yesterday and I was pleasantly surprised at the quality. It was packaged amazingly well too, and came with a new emblem mount. Getting the OEM grille off was a complete ***** until i figured out what I was doing wrong, then it was smooth sailing. Fitment of the new grille wasn't perfect, but really close. I just removed a few extra unnecessary tabs along the top, and the grille pieces clicked right in. Once the bolts were reinstalled, it was rock solid. For less than $100, I'm really happy with it. I'll get better pics tomorrow, it was getting dark.
It did strike me as odd that when ordering a black grille, they included a chrome emblem mount. I had planned on painting it to black it out, but after installing it that one little bit of chrome is kinda growing on me. Thoughts? Leave it alone or black it out?
I've got a black billet bowtie one the way too, the one in the pics is the OEM bowtie with dip on it. Anyway, thanks for looking, and sorry for the novel.
Edit:
Here's a video I made that does a comparison between the OEM and replacement grille, and gives some tips on swapping the grille out.
[yt]CEKE_EnVRBk[/yt]
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