painting grills on '01 ES
 

i tried the gutter guards, but it just doesn't look too hot up close on the newer protege. Any one paint their grills chrome? A guy on SoundDomain painted his and looks pretty good. Just wondering if it is done the same way the interior is done or any suggestions because it is outside the car. I have primer spray and chrome spray, but don't want to start until I am absolutely sure. Once it's done, it's done! ;) I already took the grill off and cleaned it off well. It's drying now, but I don't want to do something if the paint will chip do to the plastic and plus the environmental elements, dirt, rain, etc. Any suggestions? Thanks!

MisterT

Just an update:
Never heard from any one so I did a few coats of multi purpose primer and one coat of chrome paint. Now it's pouring outside, so hopefully will be putting on the 2nd coat in the next couple of hours or so. I am not sure about doing the bottom grills. If any one is interested, I'll let you know how it turns out. The top grill was kind of scratched from trying the gutter blockers, so I figured it doesn't work, I'll paint them black again. :D

MisterT

Post pics when it's done man!!! :bt:

I got pics up on SoundDomain. Just click on "www" below. :D

MisterT

were's the pic's?,,,no www,,,

i put the gutter gaurd on too,,,and not very happy with how it turned out,,,,thinking about the atgrills

or just back to stock,,,if i found a good color i might paint mine ,,,

Look below under pm profile quote etc. you'll see a "www" box. Just click that and you are there. It is on the last page (6th page). I would post it here, but too busy to learn how. Either that or just too damn lazy! :D I wish the ghetto grills would have worked for the bottom. It looked pretty cool. MK3Mister painted his, but the pics on his site suck and you can't see how it looks. Hopefully mine are enough to make you and whoever else decide on doing it without doing it and then seeing how it looks (like I ended up doing basically).

MisterT

Sah-weet! :bt:

dood, thats pretty sweet. I think I'm gonna give that a try, accept I'm gonna paint mine to match my car's color.

Its kinda ghetto, but hey, it'll be somewhat original.

Is it easy enough to get all the grills off? I don't wanna bugger sumthing up and end up scratching the crap outta them to take them off...

As for the top, pop the hood take two visible screw out (closest to headlights) There are two more screws that are the "snap" kind that can be pried off pretty easily. The innermost ones can be take off of their "sleeve" so when you put the little "sleeve" back in the hole, the plastic screw just snaps right in (so you won't bend it). As for the bottom, I used newspaper and taped it around the top bumper, foglights, lower plastic piece. It appears that you would have to remove the entire bumper to get the sucker out, so I did it the easy way, tape and newspaper :D Ghetto I know, but it turned out looking pretty good! I used Duplicolor Chrome paint (3 or 4 max coats). It doesn't recommend overcoating. I skimped on using primer on bottom piece. I hope I won't pay for that later. :rolleyes:

MisterT

Sorry if I hijack your thread, but MisterT I see you decorate your engine bay with blue wire loom (is it what they called?) What size / diameter are they? I'd like to do this to my P5 also. Thanks.

No problem, cheap dressing there. I am not positive on the sizes, but got them at Pep Boys. I got about 2 of each 3 sizes of flex loom from them and went away. Ghetto I know, but hey it looks better than factory!:tooth:

MisterT

NOICe. I'll be trying that this afternoon.

Gonna try not to skimp on primer tho.. hehe

A couple of things. I skimped on primer on the lower grill and it turned out better than the upper one which I put 3-4 coats. Finally, I don't even know if primer is needed, but figured I'd do it on the top part. If you do go with Primer, it can't be the kind for metal because it is obviously plastic.

I've run into a snag.... my car is 02.. so maybe its a bit different.

Beside the 4 screws u talked about (2 screw outs, and 2 pop outs) there are 2 plastic peg things that seem to also be holding it in place. Not sure what to do about them yet.. I may need to just break em off... we'll see.. I'll keep trying.. hopefully I won't totally bugger it up :)

The two plastic pegs as you call them are the innermost part and can be pried off. It comes off easily. When putting them back in, put the cylinder shaped plastic pieces on first, then put the plastic screws in last so that the unit will hold every thing in to place.

MisterT