American Flag Grill Mod
Thread Starter
JK Newbie
Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 11
Likes: 0
From: Colorado Springs, CO
American Flag Grill Mod
I wanted to make my 2014 JKU stand out somehow and decided I would start with some plastidip on the grill. I have seen some people paint their entire grills one color but I decided I would go one step further and make the grill look like an American Flag.
I started with a concept drawing. I already had 2" thick masking tape so I drew the model on auto-cad to determine spacing and for reference when I was laying the masking tape.
For the stars, I purchased contact paper from walmart and cut it to a 8.5x11 inch sheet. Fed it in my inkjet printer and printed the stars ready to be cut. I used an exacto knife to cut the stars out. The contact paper is a clear sticky film on one side and paper on the other. Make you sure you print on the paper side or else the ink will not stick.
The grill was not hard to remove. Removing the six pins on-top and unplugging the lights will allow the grill to pop right off.
From there, I moved onto masking the entire grill. I used 2" thick masking tape for the stripes of the flag. The stars were also placed but were impossible to see as they are a clear film.
This is a picture of the grill after its first coat.
In the end, I had 5 coats. I tried to remove the tape right after the last coat but this resulted in peeling. I ended up re spraying another coat to fix this peeling. After an hour of drying I took an exacto knife and followed the lines of the tape, making sure to only cut through the plastidip. This allowed me to remove the masking tape with perfect and straight lines.
Let me know what you think or if you have any questions.
I started with a concept drawing. I already had 2" thick masking tape so I drew the model on auto-cad to determine spacing and for reference when I was laying the masking tape.
For the stars, I purchased contact paper from walmart and cut it to a 8.5x11 inch sheet. Fed it in my inkjet printer and printed the stars ready to be cut. I used an exacto knife to cut the stars out. The contact paper is a clear sticky film on one side and paper on the other. Make you sure you print on the paper side or else the ink will not stick.
The grill was not hard to remove. Removing the six pins on-top and unplugging the lights will allow the grill to pop right off.
From there, I moved onto masking the entire grill. I used 2" thick masking tape for the stripes of the flag. The stars were also placed but were impossible to see as they are a clear film.
This is a picture of the grill after its first coat.
In the end, I had 5 coats. I tried to remove the tape right after the last coat but this resulted in peeling. I ended up re spraying another coat to fix this peeling. After an hour of drying I took an exacto knife and followed the lines of the tape, making sure to only cut through the plastidip. This allowed me to remove the masking tape with perfect and straight lines.
Let me know what you think or if you have any questions.
JK Enthusiast
Joined: May 2013
Posts: 140
Likes: 0
From: New york
I was thinking the exact same thing, but I plasti dipped my grill in the past and usually rocks chip away at it, I've seen people who buy a vinyl to put in the grill, but yours looks great, really looks professionally done
