jscherb

I'm prepping the grille for paint now and I need to decide what color the inserts should be. There are two factory colors for JL inserts...

Gun metal gray:



Silver:



I will be painting the grille Deep Cherry Red to match my Jeep, what do you guys think about the color for the inserts?

icrashbikes

The darker gray gets my vote

akpostal

X2 on dark grey.

jscherb

I agree bright silver is probably too much for my Jeep, I'm just hoping the darker gray and my dark cherry red aren't too dark together.

jscherb

The paint process is underway. Step 1 was sealing with epoxy primer, I shot that this morning:



This afternoon I'll shoot it with high build primer, which will cure overnight and get a fine sanding tomorrow morning. After that the steps for tomorrow are:

- color coat
- mask the slots/headlight buckets and shoot the insert color
- clear coat

If everything goes according to plan, it'll be done tomorrow.

icrashbikes

That's gorgeous. I see the headlight adjustment cutouts and the lower mounting screw holes now. The two front screws would make grille removal much easier with a winch. I don't have enough room to release the stock clips without unbolting the winch to slide it forward. Will you be masking for paint with tape? I always have trouble getting a clean edge taping in small, curved areas like those slots or headlight bezels.

jscherb

Thank you very much. If I do my paint work well it should look like a factory part when it's done and installed.

Good point about winches. Another selling point for this grille .

For the sharp corners I'll be using 3M/Scotch Vinyl Tape 471; it's very thin and has a sharper edge definition than ordinary masking tape so it's easier to get a sharp line. For the straight lines I'll be using Scotch Fine Line Tape 218. Why am I using two different tapes? The way I made the inserts, they're set up so 3/8" wide tape applied flush with the face of the grille will be the proper depth to mask the inserts but I wasn't able to get 471 tape in 3/8, so I'll use 218 for the straight lines where the exact distance is critical and 471 tape in the corners because it conforms better.

karls10jk

I'm going to defect from the group here. The grille looks awesome but I think I'd go with the lighter silver to match the bumper and stickers you've already got. Maybe even consider going to the PDM if you want the darker silver, it would be closer to the Freedom Edition/ Mountain Edition grilles.

jscherb

I don't know exactly what color the JL inserts are, but I found a gun metal grey from Duplicolor that seems to be a pretty good match for the dark inserts in the JL photos I've seen. I have posted that I'm a little concerned that my Dark Cherry red plus the dark gun metal gray may not be the best, the only example I have is the JL photo I posted that seems to be Flame Red, which is a lot lighter than my Dark Cherry. There is a Toyota color called Phantom Grey Pearl which is very similar to the gun metal gray but a shade or two lighter and also pearl. It's way darker than the bright silver factory inserts though. I may go with the Toyota color, I've got both gun metal gray and the Toyota color here so I'll spray samples of both tomorrow and decide then.

BTW I'm shooting the accent color with Duplicolor rattle cans because the area is so small. Everything else that's going on it being sprayed with a spray gun.

jscherb

Maybe it will be boring to some of you for me to post photos of the grille in another shade of gray, if so I apologize. In these photos it's been shot with several coats of high build primer. In the photo I posted this morning the darker gray was epoxy primer, which serves as a sealer, has very high adhesion properties, and makes a very good base for subsequent layers. High build primer, which is this lighter gray, is a high solids primer that builds thickness quickly and sands very easily. It (and the epoxy) are 2k (two-part) coatings, requiring a catalyst (epoxy) or a hardener (high build) in order for the coating to cure.

The goal of the high build is to fill any minor surface irregularities and sand very easily to provide a perfectly smooth surface for the application of the base color coat and clear. High build it not a substitute for bodywork and sanding to perfect the surface, I spent several hours hand sanding the grille before starting with the epoxy this morning even though the surface was very nice coming out of the mold.

High build needs to cure overnight so to be sanded well, so in the morning I'll lightly hand sand the grille with 220 grit sandpaper. At that point the surface should be extremely smooth and ready for the base color coats to be applied.

Sorry if I might have bored some of you with this but I'm often told that people appreciate me providing lots of detail on materials and techniques.