Im looking to paint my chrome rings on my headlight, the chrome grille (upper and lower half), and chrome door handles, and chrome tail light rings, along with the gas cap.


How do I get each of these parts out? I want to know how to do it before I attempt and break off clips.

Should I wrap them in dry carbon fiber vinyl or should I just paint them?

 

What color do you want them? Gloss or flat? I dunno how to get them off, but once you do, stuff called plasti-dip is very popular for a flat black finish that is durable and good looking.

 

If you are considering the Plasti-dip rattle can (which actually looks pretty good) just tape them off and paint them on the car. Any overspray simply rubs off.

 

PLasti dip =]
I took mine off though, completely took apart my car.
Kind of a perfectionist in that way.

 

front bumper and grills is not hard. search for threads about it. Thats what I did. Good luck!

 

you can also do body matched vinyl, which is much less prone to chipping

http://www.lylesvinylstyles.net/

lyle did mine body color and they still look great

 

not sure about door handles and gas cap, but the grill is pretty self explanatory. just give it a good look over and visualize how you think it will come out. thats what i did, and mine came off just fine. need to remove the lower bumper cover for the lower part of the grill though...

 

Plastdip is amazing. So far Ive done my grill, lower and upper, the front bumpers the handle on the boot and a couple things inside, the cup holder trim and the ash tray and the two surrounds for the AC on either side of the nav in the middle. I highly recommend it, just be patient with it and you can get great results. I had to redo a couple things and tried the door handles but failed miserably and need to try again, but its cheap and pretty fun so who cares

The top grill comes off with pretty easily. There are about 7 or so screws below the grill on the inside of the bonnet and 2 at the top, its also held on by clips once these are off but just pull straight out and it snaps off.

The lower grill I surrounded with masking tape to get a straight edge to each side and then added junk mailings around that to ensure no over spray hits the car. Most of the stuff on the body kinda 'pops out' from the body and there is enough room to get the tape in there between the chrome piece and the body, I used a small flat head screwdriver to lightly push the tape in to ensure it covers all of it and no body is sprayed.

The headlights pop out and the ring comes off as they are just held on by small clips. Be patient and work your way around it with a small flat head screwdriver and pop them out one by one. I rushed at the beginning but made it through it with only one broken clip which doesn't affect it thankfully.

The boot handle was probably the easiest. You can actually wedge sheets of paper under there and tape them in place on either side and at the top as well..A lot less taping so you can just pull out the paper when you're done!

The last thing I'll share that I learned is to use something to trace the edges of the chrome piece, if you don't remove it from the car, to ensure the plastidip doesn't dry on the tape as well so when you pull the tape it peels off the piece you're applying it to as well. I used a straightened paper clip on the lower grill for example, toothpick would work too I'm sure.

Godspeed and have fun!

 

I used high heat engine enamel for mine after plast-i-dip failed. Primer, couple color coats, and like 5 matte clear coats. Its so resilient that I figured it'd have to work. So far I only got the gas cap, tow hooks, OEM emblems, and a previously chrome "R53" emblem done, but plan to do the rest. Winter's just been too cold for paint to set up properly. However, it has served as a torture test for the paint, and after 4 months of freezing weather, snow, ice, salt, and multiple car washes, it still looks perfect.