painting ebay honeycomb se grill?

[Justdiscovering]

What's your opinion on blacking it out? Painting it black, mettalic black.. Opinions? Its kind of grayish, since I got it off of eBay, im not sure if its fully black.. 2007 Camry dark blue mett

[arabianobsession]

Is it gray? I always thought mine was black, and my car IS black, so if it wasn't black, it would appear more so, I think. Personally, I would just leave it as painting something like that could be messy or have paint runs all over it.

[Blaze9]

It seems like it would be difficult to paint. I'm no where near in expertise as most of the active guys here, but just a quick look at the grill (I have the OEM SE grill) it would be really tough to paint every nick and cranny correctly. Consistency might be bad.

[Justdiscovering]

I think its my ocd, and that it is black. How hard is it to paint the border the car color?

[SilverBullet]

This might sound dumb, but maybe you should take it to your local paint shop and see how much they will charge you. If you want a good paint job on it, that seems like the only thing you can do unless you know someone who is a good painter. Good luck with it! Post some pics when its done too!

[Justdiscovering]

Ehh sounds like a lot of work, I think in going to use mothers back to black on itl and paint the border the cars color

[Glenn8963]

like any paint job, proper preparation rules apply. the first thing is that the grille will have to be cleaned. yeah, it LOOKS clean now, but there will be traces of dust or bits of plastic inside nearly a dozen or so of the honeycomb openings. there can be finger prints on it as well.

so it needs to be cleaned. then when dry, you want to make sure there is NO humidity that day you go to paint it, so it'll dry faster.


you will need primer paint, that is made for plastics.

then the paint you choose will be for plastics as well.

a body shop will charge you for all thier times getting this done for you, i'm only guessing around $100 for starters.

[Justdiscovering]

I decided to just do the border, blue. If I couldn't trade it or sell it for the mesh grill. I put it up on the for sale area. I would mess up the grill somehow trying to paint the honeycomb.. And the mesh grill grew on me. I have primer already and clear coat, just need matching car color spray paint..

[Musicmansell]

Dude, look through my thread and you will see, I have done some serious amounts of painting on my car's engine, lights, and emblem. I have painted my front emblem 6 different times alone just trying out various colors and schemes. Trust me, it is easy to do and you will love it when your done because you did it yourself.

Right now I have a SE model and I sanded down the honey comb to a smooth surface, matched the metallic grey, and painted the "T" black both with 5 coats of clear coat. Very easy and inexpensive mod to do.

Here are some pics to give you some other painting ideas as well...

Here's the engine bay:


Here are headlights painted black:


This is when I had the emblem blue:


This is when I had the emblem black with a grey to blue fade to match the engine:


And here is the emblem as it looks now:


Hope they give you some cool ideas.

[Justdiscovering]

You painted the actual honeycomb part? How ward was that?

[Musicmansell]

It's not that bad, you just have to take your time and be sure to get it from all angles. Be sure and spray light coats otherwise you can get some running and dripping. The trick is to be patient and do lots and lots of light coats. wait 20 to 25 minutes between light coats. For your final two coats try and go a little heavier and let it dry like 30 to 40 min. The clear coat it to how ever much shine you want.

[Justdiscovering]

You used metallic? I bought black metallic spray paint.. I'm scared do it..

[Justdiscovering]

Can I send you mine to do? Lololololol

[Justdiscovering]

And what dimensions did you use for you lip black out?

[Musicmansell]

Believe it or not, I painted the lip completely by eye and hand. I just taped off the contour line straight down and painted it with Toyota Black and several clear coats. The grill was the same. Like I said, don't be scared...it is just paint and if you mess up, sand it down and try again. Remember the trick is to go slow, be patient, and use lots of light thin coats.

I would do it for you, but the shipping costs alone wouldn't make it worth it...sorry