i would say vinyl because it's one solid sheet. Paint can be chipped with stones (as the rest of your bumper can). Also for me, the paining procuder required too much work (taping off, sanding, letting dry etc.) The vinly was easier and fast in my book and it won't chip or peel. The grill I would paint because it's hard to vinyle a shape like that, plus you don't have to tape anything off and it's a fairly small piece to paint.

 

Did it with paint after some friends advised me not to put vinyl because it is very possible to get piled off when you try to wash your car with a high pressure washer and then you got to do the job again. I have painted also the grill and the chrome thingy to go with the paint.

I am very pleased with the result:

 

did u have it professionally painted? if u did it urself, how long did it take

 

Professionally because it is not very expensive and i will not worry too much about paint chipping or other things like that. But i have stayed there during the process. It lasted for about 3 hours with masking, painting and drying in a special chamber.

 

anyone have pictures or more detail on how to do the vinyl install for just the middle of the front bumper piece?

 

^^it really is very easy. do it when it's warm...with you being in boston, I'd wait until it gets at least 70F before you do vinyl. if it's too cold, the vinyl won't stretch and you'll end up with bad results.

Just take off the grill as per how-to (you dont' even need the how-to really) buy a SINGLE sheet of flat black vinyl that is larger than your intended area of coverage. You can always trim excess but if you don't have enough, then you're SOL. Clean the area with rubbing alcohol and DONT TOUCH IT AFTERWARDS!!!

I wear gloves (like medical-type gloves) so that my hands can slide nicely over the vinyl. the peel off the backing a little bit at a time, start on one end, and stretch while sticking it to the bumper.

If you get creases as you stick, just peel it back and do it again until it's nice and smooth. keep stretching!!

once the entire area is covered, use a very sharp utility knife, olfa knife, or razor blade to trim off the excess.

 

I've been through several high powered car washes and it never did anything to the vinyl. it's still stuck on there like white on rice!

 

how many coats should i use for my grill im going to paint it tomorrow and just put a vinyl i have already for the middle piece

 

several light coats will do the job. I think I ended up doing about 6 or 7 light coats with about 10 mins drying time in between

 

get ready to paint it a 1000 times... nicks + scratches FTL

 

this freaking helps!!!!

 

I bought Dupli-Color Trim Paint OEM Black, will that work?

 

damn... that looks so....beautiful... i want to do that to my lancer too!
anyone know if you could get the ralliart chrome trim
without getting a whole ralliart bumper?

 

^check on ebay. they sell kits for those. also look around on the forums, there's a couple of people on here that have done it already

 

Check autozone, they sell the chrome trim thingy.