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Front Grill Color

3K views 17 replies 8 participants last post by  notransistors 
#1 · (Edited)
Both my new and my previous GTO had kidney grilles of a dark dark grayish metallic color on the surface [the interior of the honeycombs are black]. I have a sales flyer that reveals a chromed grill. Some pictures of other GTOs reveal a black grill. I ask, because when I sprayed undercoating to protect the box frame where sulfuric acid had removed some red paint, I had a bit spray through a grille. This effectively removed some of the gray metallic paint. So in the Spring, I will need to choose a new color for the grills.

Did the factory offer only one color, or several. Has anyone seen the grill in factory chrome?
Finally, is the actual grill paint available, or must I pick something else? Perhaps black or even Pulse Red?
Whatever it will be, how will I be assured of adhesion and durability? I can just as easily use some fine steel wool or emery paper to simply make the grilles all-black. Would this come out well, or would the sanded surface look like crap? I have to assume that to apply paint to only the outside surface, one must use a roller. Spraying each honeycomb for full color coverage would be difficult or just plain sloppy.
 
#3 ·
i pulled my bumper and popped out the kidneys grilles and the the lower grille and put about 5 coats of semi gloss black on them and re installed and it looks great. Im not sure how chrome would look but they do have chrome looking paint if you wanna give it a try.
 
#4 ·
#5 ·
I believe they are the same color from the factory BUT some of the exterior paint colors seem to make them look different shades. I mention this because my IBM (blue) made the grills look much more silver than this Cosmos (dark purple), where they seem to look more of a dark gray.

Had though of painting my IBM grills black back when, but it sort of makes them look cheap, I think. I certainly wouldn't want any chrome paint on them, yuck.

Did the acetone hurt the plastic? Must be some durable stuff :D
 
#6 · (Edited)
I have never seen the chrome grills, except in the promo ad for our car. I need to find a way to scan the thing so you can view it. Funny thing is that only one of the pictures shows this. All the rest have the color grille we are used to seeing.

The undercoat spray has a turpentine-type of solvent. Not acetone. This is why the thing did not melt.
 
#12 ·
I honestly think flat black looks best.
I masked off the gto letters and the oval it was in, then painted them. Turned out great, looked good with the contrast of the stock gray background.
I'd take a picture, but they're faded again. I'm going to fix them, first.
 
#15 ·
Well you will get many people against plasti dip for no apparent reason with that comment.

I did the "fake SAP" mod with plasti dip as well as my rims and months later it still looks the same as when I did it. People ask if the rims are powder coated and are surprised to find out that they are not. Basically it is a spray can of "rubber" that goes on exactly like spray paint and I have found that it is much easier and forgiving painting with plasti dip. The best feature of it is that it peels off if you want.

I've though about doing my grills in it, but my main concern is that rocks will chip away at it and it require a repaint
 
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