PAINT--REAR CHALLENGE GRILL....anyone do it?

I've noticed my Challenge grill (rear) has some fade spots and is almost a flat black. Well, I don't like it. I have a compressor, spray gun, you know, everything I need. There's only one problem; I'm going to need heat resistant paint. I know they sell it in a spray bomb, but don't know if they have it in a mixable version that I can dilute and apply myself. Or, would I be better off buying the spray bombs and going that route. Anyone do this yet???

Around the lights seems okay, primariy where the heat is the hottest is the paint the flattest. Needless to say it makes the car look aged. I'll certainly have to do the whole thing, and I've gotta fix it. Any thoughts you have before I attempt would be appreciated.

Pic attached...it looks worse in person...

B~
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Spray a little silicone or that stuff used on tires to make them shine on there. That usually does the trick.

I have seen a number of grills that have that super flat black look on them (probably due to heat or being in the sun, etc). My grill doesn't have it, but I usually put a little something on it to make it look better anyway.

Ray

 

Powder coating is inexpensive and very durable.

 

My concern would be all the little holes. I suspect you'll end up with some of them blocked or closed up from paint. Maybe the Griot's "Forever Black" stuff would work?

 

Hi Ray. I've tried several "black" applications, but as soon as the car gets hot it looks like a window with a lot of streaks on it. I've yet to find anything that can keep that shiney black look without responding to the heat in some visual way.

Daniel, BTW, the shields look fantastic! Thanks~ The holes will close up or get congested if you don't dillute the paint, so it will need three or four coats, very thin coats. I've used heat resistant paint before (the spray cans) with very good success as they are very thin to begin with. Not knowing what kind of paint is on there now will force me to prime it to be sure a neutral foundation is down for the paint. I'm tempted to try the spray cans and if it turns out poorly I'll tear it down, sand it, and spray it right.

Drew, I have no idea how powder coat holds up to heat. I've never heard of it being used for high heat areas.

 

As far as I recall, I just spray a little bit of that tire flash/shine stuff on there and it looks great. Of course, I've never had any problems with it looking flat black in the past either - so that might be a factor.

My money is on powder coating if you plan to paint it. However, if you plan to do all that, why not switch over to the CS rear grill which has larger holes Just weld up the badge holes and go to town

Ray

 

I've tried several chemicals to brighten the black,..no luck. I may compound it as a last resort to determine if it can be saved. If not, I'm painting it. The problem is all those damn holes. Can you imagine getting the compounding material out of the holes--oh my. I'll keep you posted.

 

How about painting it a charcoal color close to carbon fiber color? I've been thinking about doing that with mine.

 

Update...What a mess. I polished with three different levels of polish to get the shine back. It looked fantastic. Them I waxed it to bring out the shine,..incredible results. Two hours later after it had time to set. All the white polish showed its ugly head in the holes. Oh man, I'm in trouble now. I'll never get that crap out. I hit it with a high pressure air hose and nothing happend. I'll use my high pressure washer on it next time around. I tried using a tooth brush, boars hair brush and a couple of scrub brushes. I'll keep you posted.

 

Bill,
Powder coating is the way to go.
I took mine off and took it to a local shop.
After a day later and $180, it looks like a brand new grill.
It has been over six months and looks still great.

 

Can't go wrong with Powdercoating as mentioned.. Go for a Semi-Gloss black

 

Okay. I'll look into it today.

 

I received an estimate of $60 to sandblast and $175 to powdercoat. They tell me there are 20 different blacks to choose from. I'm just going with a glossy black. I believe it looks fresher with the shiney finish, IMO. I'll take pics as the process is begun sometime late this week.

B~

 

Bill,
Just FYI,
T008-BK181 is what I used on mine to match the original finish.
My total bill came out to be $180 including sand blasting.
I thought Texas would cheaper than Silicon Valley.....

 

I would either go with SEMI gloss which is a Shiny Matte, or go with the stock color!

 

Got an estimate for 120, sandblasted and painted in one day. I'll be taking on next week.

 

I just picked up my grill from having it sandblasted, stripped, sandblasted and powdercoated. They told me the grill was originally powdercoated and required a significant amount of work to remove the old coating (they had to bathe it in paint remover and reblast it). They can tell if it was previously powdercoated as when they are sandblasting the old finish, it lets off sparks as they hit it. And it sparked a lot.

It's hard to tell exactly where the finish was when the grill was new as it's probably been on the car sucking up heat from the muffler for several years. So, I matched the current color and took it up one notch to try to replicate whatever gloss was there. The results are absolutely fantastic. I am very, very happy and want to thank those who suggested powdercoating as a means of repainting the grill.

I'll post pics tomorrow of it. If you live in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, these guys do fantastic powdercoating work.

B~

 

Pics of before, during and after. I'm very pleased.

Cheers~
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Nicely done!! It looks awesome again.

 

Thanks for the comments. It really looks better in person than in the pics, but I wanted to show that it is worth the time to udertake this project as it freshens up the car's appearance dramatically.

 

Very nice.... I know it is a bit hard to tell in the picture, but it shows X100 better in person.

 

looks much better
wonder if more will follow

 

Looks stunning now

 

looks nice!

 

My 360 Spider rear grill looks flat and has some tiny spots where there appears to be no paint at all. I got a quote here in NJ for $900 to remove, paint and reinstall. Seems high but I would like to have it done.

Question is, how difficult is it for a semi-handy guy to remove and reinstall the grill. I've read some posts about taping the bumper like pics above and labeling the tail light locations, etc.

If I do the remove and install should bring the price down to a couple of hunderd bucks as mentioned in posts above.

thoughts on complexity of remove/replace appreciated.