Well, whoever said they > they didn't even sand theirs... just shot it with Krylon Fusion plastic paint, and months later, it still has no chips <
Uhhh..... Okay. Then maybe you guys better not try to sand them first. Because I did, then shot it with Krylon Fusion satin black, and less than one week later, after 1 short road trip, and one wash, I had probably 30 small, but very noticeable chips (chrome showing through the black :-(

So, now I've yanked the grille back off, and spent probably 5 hours wire brushing all the paint back off. I was hoping that the wire brushing was going to scratch the chrome a bit deeper, and in my second attempt, allow the paint to stick a bit better. But you could see and feel, that the wire brush was leaving the chrome even smoother ! Dang that stuff is sure hard to scratch !

Next, I dropped from the previous 240 grit sand paper I had used, to 60 grit ! Sounds crazy, huh ? You might think that this would leave scratches deeper than the paint would fill.... But nope. Again, the chrome is so hard, that was barely roughing the surface any more than the 240 grit !

Next (and I know this sounds totally goofy.... okay, so it is totally goofy :-)
I had the wire brush attachment on the drill already {the type where all the wires stick straight forward} So I'm looking around the garage, and I find a piece of that foam backed emmery cloth. In a half serious way, I pick up a small square, and smash the foam backing, onto the wire bristles on the wire brush drill attachment. I take it to the grille, and bam ! This is the first thing I've hit it with that really make scratches deep enough that paint might stick to it ! It was working fast and easy too ! Going to do the whole rest of the grille today, then paint it again in the next few days.
The way I see it is, if it the scratches are, in fact, deep enough to where the paint won't completely fill the scratches, fine ! Better chance it will at least stick then. I'll just do several layers of paint, and maybe some light sanding in between, until I get the scratches filled.

Also, I've been experimenting with several different black paints. It seems that flat black is "too flat" while satin black, is too glossy. So, I'm just going to use a whole bunch of layers of black primer, and then a top coat of whatever I find that is the closest match to my bumpers and wheels. Already tried 3... and have 2 or 3 more to go....

Will post results,
Fish

 

Thanks for the info. Still haven't gotten around to painting mine yet, but my black electrical tape is still doing the job for now

 

a few more thoughts....

Okay, so like I had said, I "scratched" the heck out of the chrome on my Roush grille, with 60 grit sandpaper, then, this morning, I painted right over those scratches ! Crazy, right ? Well guess what, if anybody doubted how incrediblY hard chrome plating is, the first coat of flat black primer made those scratches completely disapeer ! How shallow were those scratches ?

I'm almost bummed. I was hoping it would take several coats, and maybe even a wet sanding in between. More work, sure, but I would have had more confidence that the paint would "stay stuck".

Oh well. Guess we will see.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So yesterday I had another thought;

How many FX2's and FX4's do you see cruising around your home town with aftermarket grilles ? Oh... and how many of those now have billet grilles ? For my area, the answers are 1 million.... and 999,997 ;-)
So the thought crossed my mind > How many of those guys still have the stock FX2 or FX4 bumper sitting at home in the garage, or the storage shed ? So, maybe if I ask a few of them about this, and offer them $40 for it, I'll be able to follow him to the house, hand him the cash, and drive away with an FX2 or FX4 grille, which, because it is not chrome, should hold paint WAY better than the Roush..... and even if it did chip, it's dark grey underneath, not chrome, so chips wouldn't show near as much.

Put it this way, if my Roush starts chipping again, I think I'm going to try this rout next.

IMPO, the FX2's and FX4's look darn near as good as a roush anyway.

Hmmmm,
Fish

 

That's a lot of work for a painted grille. I like my Roush grille the way it is, chrome. But if I wanted a black grille I'd probably do the same thing.

 

You ain't freakin' kiddin' ! :-)

....and I normally get about $25 an hour..... so this might end up being like a $500 grille ! :-) LOL

Seriously though, I like the chrome Roush grilles too.... on a truck which includes some chrome in the styling scheme.

Anyway, I just finished shooting it, with Rustoleum dark gray automotive primer, several good layers. Cool thing about priumers and other flat paints, is that it dries so quickly, you can darn near just start on one corner, and by the time you get back around to your starting point, it's already dry enough to just keep going.
Then I let it sit for about 30 minutes, and made a few more circles around it with Rustoleum B-B-Q black....

And I gotta' say, it might be just a touch "flatter" than my wheels and bumpers now, but the paint job came out totally "flawless" ! No dust. No orange peel. No shinier spots.

Of course I can always shoot something else right over the top of this, if I find a closer match, but I think for this upcoming week, I'm going to wash the truck "first".... then bolt on the freshly painted Roush grille, so I can enjoy it for at least a week ;-)

Then if it still hasn't chipped in a few weeks, I might start trying to find something to put down on top of it, but if it does chip, why bother.

Peace,
Fish

 

Here's mine. Since the pic I have lost the nerf bars and i'm about to lose the tips and dump the exhaust. I think the chrome of the headlights is just enough.

 

your chrome Roush grille, with the black surround looks sweet with your wheels ! Perfect match.

Your headlights look good too. HD's ? Or Hella's ?

Fish

 

Gotta love a good PITA project

 

Thanks. It's still a work in process since the wreck and hailstorm.

HD's. I at first had black Depo's but they crazed and leaked, so I bought the HD's. No problems with OE.

 

Ya know the grill is metal on plastic. Might be better to figure out how to remove the metal and have it powder coated. Just a thought. I still have my Roush in black. I tried to power wash the paint off and its not budging. I only had 2 chips in mine. I might have to pry the metal off one of the bars and see how its attached.

 

I always thought these were just chrome plastic over plastic. Not metal over plastic... i have one on the way and intend on painting mine as well.

 

Nope, metal over plastic. Looks like polished stainless to tell you true.

 

It's chrome over plastic. From the Roush site....

http://store.roushperformance.com/detail.aspx?ID=714

 

It's metal. I have one sitting in my garage and I doubt Fish would be complaining about a wire wheel not eating into a plastic grill. It's chrome plated metal attached to a plastic frame.

 

It's chrome. What do you think chrome is???? It's a type of metal.

If it were only metal Roush would call it a metal over plastic grille.