Soo i tore down my front end today and pulled my grill and painted it
Time for some PICS:

I tore down the front end and made my decision on which color to paint it, put the headlights back in so i could legally drive to go get paint


First coat to show difference in color


Underside of the radiator valence makes for a nice spot to color test the paint


Cont...

 

Back in grill surround




And a pic all done!


And damnit i just made my sig about a week ago and now its obsolete.
Tell me what yall think of my day's work.
-Patrick

 

Looks good.

 

TTT! No other people want to leave me some comments?
-Patrick

 

Looks way better than the factory silver!

 

Looks real good, IMO the black does look better than the factory grey. Looks like I have a project to do this spring when things warm up


Just a quick question, what type/brand of paint did you use and how did you prep the grill before painting. I have read in other posts that it should be washed with Dawn to remove any grease and scuff the grill up with some fine sandpaper. Any info would be greatly appreciated. TIA

 

Well i already threw away the can and i dont have a picture of it. The paint was a special trim paint. I believe by dupicolor. The sprayer was blue with the fan type sprayer so the paint went on nice and even. I used the whole one can that was like 5.50 or so at Vato (auto) zone.

As far as prepping, all i did was give it a quick rinse b.c i had washed my truck maybe 4 days ago. NO sanding. And i dont trust myself to taping it off so i tore down the whole front end so i could paint easily. And it turns out, that the paint doesnt want to push all the way through the depth of the grill so it was helpful that i could spray it from the back side. I made two passes in each direction, left to right, up and down, on both front and back.

My only caution is watch when you are painting the outside of the lip b.c i had a run or two, If i was a little more careful i could have easily prevented it but they ended up on the upper side of it so im not too worried about it

If anyone has any questions about how to tear down the front end or any other questions. Let me know. I hope this further write up helps out
-Patrick

 

looks nice i planned on doing that to mine this summer

 

At night you can barely tell i painted it which is a good thing i think....

This weekend im lowering my truck and maybe the next weekend if time permits i may pull the lower valence and try to paint it silver. Oh yea does anyone know the technical paint color name for my silver? Ive heard i can find a match in a spray paint but i started looking for it and there isnt just a plain silver listed.

Here is a write up i found about the lower valence painting
http://www.fordf150.net/howto/paintairdam.php

-Patrick

 

That looks great,, i've been debating doing this for about a year,,, but after having seen the pictures.. i've made up my mind. Thanxs and great job!

 

over cast day today but somethin like 3 or 4 weeks and it still looks great.

As you can tell i also lowered my truck last week.
Later,
-Patrick

 

Very nicely done. Going to tear mine down later today and do the same thing. I agree tearing down the front end probobly best idea to make sure you get even coating all the way around. Seems like it is lasting and not getting worn out.
Great post and lots of good help.

 

Think I'll do that as well. Looks real good. Think it would accent my freshly painted Lug Nut covers wel..

 

Hows that grill holding up?

 

Pretty well, i screwed up the other day thinking i coud wax it, and i need to clean it up a little, but other then that, it looks great....
No fading, no chipping etc...



-Patrick