96teeluxury

well here it is everyone, the chrome grill DIY for the lucky bastages like me with a horizontal grill

ok i went out and got myself this chrome spray (note: not metallic)
6 bucks from auto zone



to take out the grill there are two screws on top of the whole grill mounted area when you pop your trunk then 4 clips on the back of the grill (you may need to reach down in front of the alternator to get to them) they happened to be unclipped and ziptied on mine which i just cut off.

here is the grill before i took it apart



just look in the back of the grill mount to find a bunch of silver screws to take out (take all the suckers out)
the acura logo will pop out and so will the chrome border leaving you with a fully black grill and the painted sides and a top area
i highly suggest cleaning the whole black area with whatever you feel is necessary
i used q-tips and rubbing alcohol with some tissues




ok now for the tricky part (at least it was for me) tape up the border area and cover the painted area IMPORTANT: take note of where the chrome border was covering so you know where to tape, i suggest put some newspaper on the other side of the tape so that you can cover the area that isn't being sprayed outside of the tape. (i used the blue painters tape from hope depot that is good for jobs like this due to it's low adhesive properties)



ok so you're ready to start spraying, get your taped up grill onto some cardboard or whatever you want to protect the floor from the spray

IMPORTANT! i suck at spray painting so i had to practice a bit on other random crap to get a good technique, basically just keep the can between a foot and two feet from where you are spraying and spray in short bursts of about 2 seconds keep the can in almost constant motion while spraying, this way you get an even coat on.

phew, now go make some pasta you gotta wait a good 10 minutes for the crap to dry. (leave it in a warm area but well ventilated)

ok now that you're full on pasta you can come back for a second coat.
keep the same technique and go for patches you might have missed but essentially just respray the grill.

good, more pasta now you fatty! another 10 minutes.

here is the grill after 2 decent coats



ok ok i know what you're thinking, it's not chrome!
i know it doesn't look like chrome to you but that's metallica chrome you're thinking of, this is just chrome and it honestly looks better when finished



ok there it is, you're finished product. wait a while before putting it on the car because you want it to 110% dry.

congratulations there's your chrome grill and there's my first DIY! hehe

enjoy more expensive looking grill.

daemonicus

very nice! i see you used my idea. any pics installed on the car?

KaMLuNg

iTrader: (5)

96teeluxury

yeah here

PAINT4CARS

Pretty nice ....I usually recommend Chrome Bright which is a paint that comes as close to real chrome as you can get. I try to stay away from Duplicolor because while they may be cheap, the quality is questionable.

-Mike

Mandy

Nice. Could have been better if you masked of the vertical pillars....but still looks great! I wonder if it will look good on a 3.2 vertical grille........anybody??

duvaL32TL

thats what i was wondering

Blanco1

where can i get a horizontal grill?
I have a 1998 3.2 TL and the grills gotta go

any info on custom mesh grill?

daemonicus

inspired motorsports makes a mesh grille. tlxracer actually has it for sale on here for a really good price actually.

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...95#post5238595

Blanco1

Thanks Daemonicus your answerin all my questions on here!

alphason'sac

Nice job man! When will the car be ready for full shots?

Blanco1

You talkin to me?
I just need to get a battery for my digital cam and ill post some pics on here But I still have to get my system installed and put some tints on it