I was thinking about repainting the grille to my durango and making it black. As simple as this may sound to others, paint is not my specialty. What are some good ways to remove that cheap chrome paint junk without damaging anything?

 

Try E bay. I see grilles on their all the time and a lot of them are black or unpainted so you can send to local shop to paint your body color. Might be cheaper and easier in the long run.

 

How could it be cheaper? I'd have to buy a whole new grille that way when I could just strip down the one I have now, and refinish it.......

 

By the time you add taking off your grille, stripping it, since it is chrome potentially sending out to be professionally removed plus lack of use during that time. It may be cheaper and easier to just buy a new one potentially already painted to your color or black and just remove/replace.

 

You would have to strip down the chrome finish with a stripper. The best thing I've used is called Airplane Stripper. Strip down the chrome, sand down and wipe smooth with a tack cloth. Get some quality spray paint that matches (just ask someone at Advance Auto Parts and they'll tell you what to get) and be sure to mask off what you don't want to paint.

Make absolutely sure you wipe down with a tack cloth before due to possible dirt or dust being under your paint coat. Also I'd recommend using a BLACK primer coat prior to painting and be sure to use a couple of coats of paint.

Painting is my expertise and if you have any questions, send me a PM and I'll be more than happy to help you out. Like MAGIC said however, the end result would be better and a lot less PITA to paint a new grill. I would know, I replaced mine on my Ram.

 

I have seen the airplane stripper in the body section of A/Z and Advance I wasnt sure if it worked on Chrome though.

 

Im pretty sure its only chromed plastic or chrome paint, I know a lot of modern cars have chromed plastic to keep the look without the extra weight.

 

i have very similar plans for mine once the chrome finish has enough chips in it, what i would do is remove the chrome piece and work on it at your liesure, you can still drive the truck w/ it off, and this way you save some effort on masking it off

and as stated above, prepwork is the key here do that right and the end result will not only look good but last too, however skimp on it and not only will it look like ****, it will peel and flake off in a year or two. as stated you need to strip down the finish (i think starting w/ a rough grit of sandpaper and working your way finer should work on it)and then clean off, prime and paint, multiple coats of each as the directions on the can call fallif you need i am also available for advice on this

 

Yes it is just chrome plated plastic and yes the airplane stripper should strip it down. Just get a large pan thing and let it soak for 15 minutes or so and try scraping it off.

 

Well what would that stripper run me.