Thanks guys! I guess for now I will live with the stock grill even though I love
the look of the painted grill. Maybe I can find a body shop here that will give a
lifetime warranty! It seems to me that there would be some type of primer or
adhesive coat that could be applied to the stock grill to make the paint adhere.

 

Just get the 3M clear bra kit for your truck. Solves the chipping problem

 

Painted surround Race Red (PTM) at body shop after rock chip in chrome on 2011 Chrome Package 6 bar grille. Cut down on the 50's over the top chrome look and came out great. Shop scuffed the plastic chrome painted and baked. Should hold up from what I was told.

 

Welcome to the forum, jaysandy! Please allow me to refer you to our introduction section for new members. https://www.f150online.com/forums/in...ion-forum-135/ There you will receive a proper warm and hearty "welcome" from some of the forum's best!

I also had my chrome 6-bar grill PTM, too! It turned out nice, and about 2500 miles later, still looks great. If your shop used a quality acid-etch (self-etching) primer and quality OEM, PPG brand paint and clear, you should be good for a long time to come.

I would suggest the 3M clear bra, though. I got a roll comin' and I'm gonna custom cut it to fit.

 

Because of all this, my Platinum grill will be on the way to the bodyshop March 18th. He's quite busy, that's the reason for the late date. I have told the Wifey it's ya'll's fault, and I'm an innocent in this situation.


I think she bought it.......

 

I just did the PTM suround to mine as well, just stumbled accross some of TWOBLOCKs pics aparently from this thread, I found them on a random Platinum grill google search. Loved the look and did the same to mine. If anyone needs more pics I had a thread a few weeks ago going for the process I went through with mine.
https://www.f150online.com/forums/20...ltd-grill.html

About 200.00 bucks and a day at the body shop was all it took, I love the new look. An extra perk was the body shop I never sends anything out without detailing it, heck I have paid 100.00 for just a detail before. Its realy a cool looking mod and real bargan.

Now that I know where those pics I found came from, I wanted to thank the person that came up with the idea.

 

The body shop I used also gave lifetime warranty.

I can tell you the OEM brushed finish on the grill, is somehow coated in something, not sure if its vynl wrap type deal or what, but I had a rock or something hit my original brushed finish, and it ripped the coating and was bubbling up. So I would say if the fear is rock chips, the original coating on the grill can have similar issues as well. Thats actually what started my search for chaning it out for a different grill, I like the LTD grill that had a painted suround for 13' till I found out how much the new 13 LTD grill cost and would still need the PTM done on top of that. I then started searching for other ideas, when I found the pics of Twoblocked's truck, and his concept of just painting the suround and center. For me the bubble pealing deal I had going on with the OEM coating was in the suround area, having it sanded and painted body color was the cheapest way to fix it and looks a lot better then it did the day I bought it IMO. I would just keep searching for a body shop that will offer to stand behind their work.

 

I don't think I've shared these before, but here is my 2011 FX4 with a PTM Platinum grille: