How To: Painting the Chrome Grill Black

First of all I used bluewater demonds method for painting the middle of the front bumper except that I applied it to the grill. Also to bluewaterDEMON I am using some of your pictures & steps... hope you don't mind. Thanks.

(important!: If done indoors make sure temp is 70 degrees or higher where a face mask and get the room ventilated, if done out doors make sure temp is 70 degrees or higher and make sure it is not too windy as in it affects the spray when in comes out of the can.)
(Also, I am sorry that do not have pics of the sanding process or painting process as i took the pics afterwards but i have pics of after it was painted to give you an idea.)

Utilities
Small phillips screw driver for less of a hassle
Dupli-color flat black paint
Sand Paper 600Grit - 800 Grit (higher can be used if you overspray)
needle nose pliers for plastic screws or you cant push up on the plastic screws with your fingers from under the radiator cover and pulled them out like i did.

The radiator cover is held down with 6 plastic push-pins. You will need needle nose pliers to remove the pins, and a screwdriver for the two plastic screws near the air intake duct (or you cant push up on the plastic screws with your fingers from under the radiator cover and pulled them out like I did) I have the locations of the plastic fasteners circled in the picture.


Once the radiator cover is off and out of the way, you will than have access to the screws for the upper grille. There are 5 screws in total, and 4 clips. There is one screw at each corner, and one screw in the upper middle. You will need a very short phillips head screwdriver for this. Make sure you remove the correct screws! After all of the screws have been removed, there are still four clips holding the grille in place. You can use a pair of needle nose pliers to squeeze the clips, or your fingers. Make sure you pull on the grille (carefully!) while working with the clips.


Alrighty then, now that you have the grill out unscrew another 4 screws to seperate the emblem piece with honeycomb style grill from the chrome surrounding.


Now you're going to have to sand down the chrome surrounding you can use 320 Grit to 600 Grit. (you can wet sand if you'd like but i dry sanded it) I used 600 Grit which I believed was to soft (just my opinion). once you got those tought edges sanded down as well get some rubbing alcoholand clean the gill from any sanding debree be carefull not to touch the grill while rubbing the alcohol.


Once that is done just pop out the Dupli-color Flat Black and just spray away in a left-right motion with even coats. I decided to use the whole can but you can use a good 3-5 coats if you'd like.



This time when you're done with the spray painting just either let it set in a room with 70 degrees or higher or you can let it sit in the direct sunlight to dry.



Now the last step would be to assemble the grill together and reinstall the grill to your Lancer and post up pics when you're done and that's it have fun.

 

this is very useful, imma do this, but imma make the emblem black too, im still thinkin bout it

 

looks better in flat black than chrome my personal opinion also you can use the krylon ultra-flat black i used that when i did it for a friend and looks better that the duplicolor.

 

thanks i think i'll try it later today

 

thanks so much man i've been tryin to get this info out of a bunch of people....

 

actually use a high grit sandpaper so you wont scratch the grille

 

i used a 320 scratched the chrome up, thought u were sposed to do it like that, i know someone that sanded the **** out of his grill down to the plastic, then painted

 

i have mine painted to but be aware of rocks and a pressure washer.. any imperfection and it will start flaking away..

 

haha forreal the same day i painted my ish rocks already chipped some paint off

 

yah it sucks.. but at least its an eay fix.. but i ordered a fiberglass grill off ebay and it didnt really fit and cracked so i just got mad and threw it out.. but rrm has one but im debating to buy it or just keep tending to mine.

 

get the DE grill. It comes black and only costs like $130 or something...
http://www.mitsubishionlineparts.com/

 

really? got any pictures?

 

i just took of the gloss of the chrome so the factory chrome base paint is still ther and i sprayed on top of that one and lasted me for 6 months now, no scratches and/or chips on mine

 

im kinda lost??
how did you get the chrome part off the top grill??? is that what your painting or you actually painting the grill? i wanna get the chrome crap off of mine.

 

I don't think you're supposed to remove all of the chrome it will take forever. Sand it enough to scuff the crap out of it, you COULD use a low grade paper BUT you need a high grade to keep things even. What ever you do, keep it smooth. When I did mine it kind of looked like worn down Aluminum because of the dullness. I'd say when it looks like that, Primer it (If you choose to get it, I did) then put a lot of coats on it.