Painting Tacoma Grill Surround

Intro: Painting Tacoma Grill Surround

So I've been wanting to do this for a while now, I watched some you tube, read some forum threads and figured I'd give it a shot! I did have some trouble finding a clear write up for what I wanted, so hopefully this is helpful to others who want to do the same thing! Feel free to give me some pointers/comments/feedback...I've never painted anything on a car before so I'm by no means a professional!

All in all I spent about $38 on stuff you can find at any auto parts store. From start to finish this project took about a day and a half (keep in mind, a lot of that time was spent literally waiting for paint to dry...so actual work time was only about 3.5-4 hours.)

I know some guys go the plasti dip route, but I wasn't too sure of the color match or longevity, never having used it myself. So, this time around I went with the traditional primer/paint/clear combo.

STEP 1: Materials and Tools

Luckily, you won't need a lot for this project. You probably have most of it lying around already!

MATERIALS:

• 200-400 grit sand paper
• 800 grit scuff pad
• 2000 grit wet/dry sand paper
• Dupli Color scratch filler primer
• Dupli Color Black (specific toyota match)
• Dupli Color protective clear coat finish

TOOLS:

• Knife or flathead screwdriver (just something to pry with)
• Phillips head screwdriver (optional)
• 10 mm socket w/wrench
• T20 torx bit driver
• paper towel or lint free rag
• soapy water
• sponge
• rubbing alcohol
• gloves (latex or nitrile)
• crap load of elbow grease
• beer (optional...but I mean c'mon)

STEP 2: Remove the Grill

This is pretty straight forward, but I should mention that I've got a 2012 taco, so I can only say for sure that these steps will work for 2nd gen's only. They might work on others, they might not.

First, remove (2) 10mm bolts from the top of the grill with either the phillips head or the socket. After that there should be (2) pop up clips next to the headlights, (1) on each side. All you have to do is pry that center circle up with anything flat and the whole clip should come up.

Lastly, there should about (8) plastic tabs along the bottom holding the grill in place. There are (2) large ones by the headlights and (6) smaller ones along the center. You should be able to feel them with your fingers and, while gently pulling back on the grill, pop them up and out one at a time until the whole unit is out.

STEP 3: Take the Surround and Grill Apart

This was a bit more time consuming, but still pretty straight forward. There are (12) torx head screws size T20 to remove. And then comes the fun part...about 10 metal tabs coming from the surround through the plastic grill that have to be painstakingly pried and pushed back through at the same time. I found that starting on one of the corner tabs helps. You can pry the plastic away from the metal tab while pulling the grill away from the surround until the tab head sinks below. You may want to wedge something in between the grill and the surround to help keep tension on it while you pry the remaining tabs.

After that, you only have about (6) basic tabs that just have to be depressed lightly and the whole thing should come apart!

STEP 4: Clean It Up!

Before you start scuffing or painting you want to clean the surround to get rid of any bugs, sap, grease, dirt or anything that would keep the primer from sticking or would leave a lump in the finish. Just take some soapy water and a sponge and wipe everything down a few times until you've gotten rid of all the imperfections.

STEP 5: Scuff It Up

Now that you've gotten the chrome clean enough to eat off of...scratch the crap out of it! I'd go with about 300-400 grit paper and lightly start to scuff up the surface until you can see even scratches covering the whole surface. At this point you should be wearing gloves to keep the dirt and oils from your hands from getting on the metal. Then wipe it down with rubbing alcohol, let it dry, and get it ready for priming!

STEP 6: Prime Time!

Now, I just followed the instructions on the can. It's that simple. I did 4 coats (there were still a few spots after 3 coats, so i waited an hour, scuffed lightly with the 800 grit pad and added another coat), about 8" away in smooth even strokes making sure not to start or stop on the surround itself. It's important not to go for full coverage on the first coat. The key is building an even layer with multiple LIGHT coats...you can always add more!

After the first coat you can see it's pretty spotty...but a few coats later it's nice and even.

STEP 7: Painting

This is pretty much a repeat of step 5, except with the paint. Just make sure you wait about 5-10 mins between each coat and at least 30 mins before you apply the clear coat.

STEP 8: Clear Coat

Lather. Rinse. Repeat. Same as the priming and the painting, keep the can moving, light coats! It also helps if you clear the spray nozzle after each coat by flipping the can over and spraying until only air comes out.

STEP 9: Wet Sanding

Unless you have a spray booth and an hvlp system, you're probably gonna end up with a little orange peeliness in your final finish...and i wanted something closer to factory than that. So it's up to you if you want to go through with this step...some of you maybe lucky enough to have a flawless finish right of the bat! Me not so much.

So, I let it dry for a few hours and then took some 2000 grit sand paper, sprayed some water on it and gently scrubbed the whole thing. You should see a white slurry start to appear, which is good. That means your smoothing out the finish. Do this a few times, wipe it clean with alcohol, let it dry and reapply another coat or two of clear coat. You should notice the finish is much clearer and shinier this time around.

STEP 10: Reassemble, Reattach, Step Back and Enjoy!

Basically work backwards through the first few steps (carefully!!) and then go brag to all your buddies about how awesome you are!

STEP 11: Afterthoughts

Like most first-time-projects, hindsight is always 20/20. So a few things I would've done differently and(or) better:

1. Scuff the chrome up more thoroughly. I don't think I scuffed it up enough...while priming and painting I noticed a few little spots not sticking to the chrome.
2. Check EVERY angle for even color distribution. I sprayed this in the sun thinking all that light would give me the best view in case I didn't get enough paint somewhere...turns out everything looks pretty even outside. It wasn't until I brought the piece inside that I noticed some edges and angled parts weren't coated as evenly as I would've liked. Next time, I guess.
3. If you can, spray the clear coat inside. Just make sure you're in a well ventilated area. I had to carefully pick out bits of dust and bugs and crap before every coat, and that's probably why I had such a rough finish.
4. It helps to orient the piece you're spraying vertically so that you can keep the can upright. I noticed if I held the spray can horizontally for too long I wouldn't get an even spray and it would start to sputter.

Well, that's it for the write up! I tried to make this as detailed as possible (sorry if I went a little overboard) so I hope this helps anyone looking to do something similar. If you have any improvements/comments/questions on this process feel free to let me know!

Comments

[roy2112]

Wouldn't it be much easier to just buy a replacement grill, instead futzing around trying paint over a chromed piece of plastic?

[haydend6]

how did this how up over the years with wear and Tear??

[TacoDan]

Hi all! I wanted to add some tips. I did my grille surround just like this before even seeing this page. I have a 2010 TRD Off-Road.
Here are some of the things I did, recommend, and regret:

1. The clear coat is not a proper clear coat. I used the exact same stuff and it chipped immediately. Use a 2K clear coat. This is actual paint that will cure. It is more money but so worth it! 2K has a hardener that is mixed in with the paint. If you don't have a paint gun, you can find them in a rattle spray can (Eastwood, USC SprayMax, etc). Painting steps would be: 2K primer, Dupli Color specific Toyota match, 2K clearcoat. Then you can wet sand if needed but you shouldn't need to!
If you don't want to pay for a 2K clear coat, still don't use the Dupli Color clear warehouse32 (and I) used. I would use a regular gloss clear coat rattle can paint.

2. Polish after wet sanding. So you paint, clearcoat, wet sand, clear coat, wet sand, polish. This will give you the most professional finish.

3. I pealed the chrome off my surround with a knife. Sanded down some cut marks and primed it. I regret not taking the extra time and using bondo to make it perfectly smooth.

4. I hear of people using "Easy-Off oven cleaner" on chrome to take it off. Not sure if that would work...

5. I am thinking about wrapping my grille surround now. I already painted it and I know how much work it will take to redo. I have a perfect colour match vinyl wrap leftover from covering my chrome bumper with.

[c3gloff]

I see your pic in the mountains and I'm like hey that looks familiar...open it up and see devil's head. Ghost! I was out there every weekend the last 8 weeks of warm weather and out there 2 weekends ago to check out the ice falls. .I need to delete this nasty chrome from my truck asap, how is this holding up for you? I need to do the bumper too but think I am going to get it wrapped.

[TacoDan]

Haha awesome! Ghost is a lot of fun to rip around. I have never been there in the heart of winter. I've been there multiple times in the summer, once in early May, and played in the snow a couple times in October.
My grille is looking pretty rough. Lots of chips and scratches from not having a proper clearcoat. I haven't repainted it or wrapped it yet. Not sure what I will do exactly yet but I think either option will be better. I wrapped my rear bumper a couple years ago and so far its doing okay! A TW member said wrapping the grille is pretty tricky and it needs to be done right so it doesn't lift. I think I will bondo the surround properly and then wrap it since I have some vinyl leftover.
Check out my build thread on TW for more info. https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/dpeles-2010-tacoma-dcsb-trd-off-road.513394/

[cbjack]

Makes your car look like a beast, love it and great job! Good clear instructions!

[warehouse32]

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it...this will be the first of hopefully many sweet mods to my truck, so keep an eye out for future instructables!

[bigg022020]

will this work with tire hubs

[warehouse32]

It should be a similar process, but depending on the condition of the parts you want to paint, you may have to spend a lot of time cleaning/removing rust. The cleaner the surface to be painted, the better the primer will adhere to it.

[Slbimrie]

That is slick! I have a silver Tacoma I've been wanting to paint all the chrome flat black. Great Instructable!

[warehouse32]

Thanks! Be sure to post some pics of your progress!

[mrygula]

I've tried this on a grille myself, but the paint chips off irregardless of how much scuffing I did. I think on my next car I may completely sandblast the chrome plating off. I even used bed liner paint with the same results

[warehouse32]

I've seen mixed results from others who've tried this. Some say it completely came off in a few months, others have had it last for years. If you do end up stripping the chrome I'd be interested to see how well it works!