I took my grill off this past weekend to paint it black. I sanded the chrome down almost to the copper lining and then sprayed it with a plastic bonding paint. As I drove back to college on sunday the small rocks and bugs from driving pretty much destroyed my paint job , so if anybody knows what works better let me know. Do I use like a clear coat on top of it or is there some kind of black paint that works better?

 

Yeah, you definitely want multiple coats of the basecoat, and multiple coats of clearcoat. You'll still get rock chips unless you cover it in clear bra material.

 

I wanted to see how the slats would look painted black so I used a roll of black vinyl electrical tape, looked so good I just left the tape on.

 

Good point. A lot of folks use vinyl to black out the grill. That works great.

 

I used multiple coats of Krylon Semi-Flat Black on my grille slats and it has held up very well.

Jim

 

Thats what I used first was the Krylon and it didn't hold worth anything so I dunno, but I got some new stuff we'll see if it works

 

anytime you are painting over bare metal, you need to apply an etching primer first. This will bite into the metal and give the paint something solid to bite into. As for avoiding stone chips, mix some flex agent into the clear, or if you are going the rattle can route, look for a clear made for flexible bumpers.

 

Try the tape you might like it.