Painting Grille and Rear Surround Write Up

G-RELL

FULLY DIPPED LS
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Hey Guys
A lot of people have been asking about the rear surround and grille color matching process. I thought I’d do a quick write up on what I did. I by no means am expert on this, but mine turned out pretty well. Ordered most of my stuff through paint scratch and used LSK’s write up for some tips. I bought 2 cans of everything and glad I did, Needed just about all of it.
Reason for painting- A buddy of mine backed into the front of my LS a while back ago. His receiver but a perfect hole above my foglight and broke the grille. I ended up finding a LS near me a guy was selling with a blown motor (same color code as mine) I was able to pick up cheap. So I figured I might as well paint since I had everything off anyways.

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Removed all the pieces and washed, claybared, and alcoholed everything down. The front plate holder bolts tore up the cover pretty good. I had to dremel off all the edges before I bondo’d. added a couple layers sanding between each until smooth.
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Removed all pieces and masked everything off. Take your time and do it right, Not a step you want to rush through. Next, sanded all the chrome down. I did not use an adhesion promoter but my primer is a flex primer meant for plastic.
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After several layers of primer, wet sanded the the primer down with 400 grit. Don’t go crazy sanding, all you need is a clean smooth service. Its also important not to touch your surfaces from this point on. I rinse my hands with alcohol to cut any grease.
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After dried, your ready for base coat. Keep nice even coats. My light parchment gold was tough to keep uniform. Make sure you shake throughout the process. Its also important to be careful toward the end of your base coat can. I tried to use to much and got some unmixed paint out of the bottom that didn’t match on my last pass. Not super noticeable, but still sucks. Once dry, your ready for your clear. I started with light coats as it suggested, You will not get a clear coat affect without a couple heavy “wet” coats. Take your time as your layer. You don’t want it to run. I think I ended up with 5 clear coat layers.
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Once complete let it cure for a day or so. Now your ready for rubbing compound, this will help smooth out your clear coat. You can do it by hand, but a buffer of some sort is best. I used my 3m buffing pad from my headlight restore kit. I will color sand in a couple weeks. Give it a month or so before you polish and wax. .... heres some quick pics..... Photoshoot soon..
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Anyone else with advise feel free to add.
 
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Looks good man good work. I'm thinking some exhaust cut outs would look real nice
 
Thanks, the valance is cut out a little, but not very much. It could use some more... I'll be painting all the lower valance pieces soon so i'll fix them then.
 
Good work man. How would you say the paint from paint scratch matched up? Pictures look like it's perfect but my eyes deceive me sometimes.
 
Thanks, the valance is cut out a little, but not very much. It could use some more... I'll be painting all the lower valance pieces soon so i'll fix them then.

I recently had my lower valance pieces color matched and I got the exhaust cut outs done and what I did was I went into the bumper an inch which levels out the exhaust tips so they don't look like they point down.
 
Good work man. How would you say the paint from paint scratch matched up? Pictures look like it's perfect but my eyes deceive me sometimes.

It was all very quality stuff... My base coat came out a little darker than the car, but they say that will happen with a thick clear coat. I will wet sand in a couple weeks and see if it lightens up. I dont think anyone would notice unless i pointed it out.

Paint scratch says it will replace any paint that doesnt match.. So do a test spot if your worried about it. thier site has alot of good info

I think my colors tough to match though.
 
I recently had my lower valance pieces color matched and I got the exhaust cut outs done and what I did was I went into the bumper an inch which levels out the exhaust tips so they don't look like they point down.

nice, i'll remember that
 
Thanks, will be looking into it. I was just looking up earlier today where to get paint from and fortunate this lightened up the search load.
 
I hope it's not going to bite you in the ass not using an adhesion promoter on the chrome, but looks good none the less, A+
 
I hope it's not going to bite you in the ass not using an adhesion promoter on the chrome, but looks good none the less, A+

we'll see.... surface was suoer clean (alcoholed before priming) and i had scuffed pretty well. But if it comes off or if i see it bubble, I'll let ya'll know.
 
Nice work, some how I missed this thread when you wrote it *subscribed*
 
NICE , you should sttart doing this for money!!
 
Thanks Guys

How's all the paint holding up?

Its doing ok. I had i little bit of it flake off on the rear edge... On a spot that would have been difficult to scuff. so jcharb might be right on using a promoter...

where did you get the paint from?

Paintscratch.com

I hope it's not going to bite you in the ass not using an adhesion promoter on the chrome, but looks good none the less, A+

Looks like that would have saved me...

I had some touchup paint it used to stop it from flaking any more, but will def. need to get it fixed...

I would also add that testing the color before you start the whole project would be a good idea.. Mine was a little dark, PS will replace any color thats off, so good idea to double check..
 
For the life of me I can't figure out what color my car is so I can make them match. Every one says its autumn red metallic but it seems so much darker... I saw a red ls today that looked actual red bit burgundy like mine... Someone help me find the paint I need.
 
If you go through paintscratch.com they have an option where you can input your vin# and they will match it that way... it works if the car wasn't hit and repainted with non oem paint
 
For the life of me I can't figure out what color my car is so I can make them match. Every one says its autumn red metallic but it seems so much darker... I saw a red ls today that looked actual red bit burgundy like mine... Someone help me find the paint I need.

look at the tag inside your drivers door jam, on the body, near the front of the opening. it will tell you exactly what color your car is.
 
For the life of me I can't figure out what color my car is so I can make them match. Every one says its autumn red metallic but it seems so much darker... I saw a red ls today that looked actual red bit burgundy like mine... Someone help me find the paint I need.

Is it like this, Dark Cherry?

View attachment 828451909
 
As 1LoudLs mentioned the sticker in the door jamb will reveal what color your car is. It will have a code and then simply type it in ye ol' google search for the "name" of the color. name doesn't matter you need the color code, that's the important part.
 

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