Quick Grille Black

[Ben850]

To be honest, I was bored yesterday and bought a can of satin-black, multy-purpose, indoor-outdoor paint.

It was not difficult to use painters tape to mask the outer chrome ring, remove the Volvo slash emblem clips, and give the car something to distance itself from 1993.

The (six) plastic slide clips that secure the grille, slide off by hand/finger, pulling with the edge that protrudes. The pegs that are connected to the backside of the grille, are removable and/or replaceable. But pay attention as to not have to do either.

What I did,

I had another grille from an old hood. So I knew I could possibly make a mistake and not worry too much.
In a nutshell, I roughed the paintable surfaces with 220 grit after wiping with acetone.(my choice. Yours may differ).
Another quick alcohol wipe, or window cleaner can prepair the surface to be painted.
Satin finish looks best, in my opinion, it worked for me.
Follow the directions on your given can of paint, things should be good, dry times etc

The fastener rings for the slash emblem, are not too tough to remove with a small screwdriver and some attention. To push them back onto their posts, I used a nut driver that fit.
Have fun.

[Ben850]

I meant to add a before photo for comparison, and figured I would throw in a before bumper photo as well, from prior to the accident last December. Original 1993 front bumper.
Have Fun.

[Frosted_v40]

eyrPbLG.jpg (140.6 KiB) Viewed 4684 times

Did almost the same thing on my 00 v40, except I did the outer trim and slash all one shade of flat black. Sanding in between the grille is a bit tricky, used a small knife to cut away the chrome paint that was already peeling away.

[Ben850]

Wow, that is like neat! Can anyone do this at home using a simple aerosol spray can? Any tips on how exactly you pulled it off so cleanly would be highly appreciated. I am new to this forum and a noob in this industry so I don't know much.

Welcome Suzan,
It really is easy. Everything you need is in this photo. I had just done this for the second time for the T5-Wagon I recently acquired.

Indoor Outdoor Satin Black spray paint.

A can of Acetone to clean the area to be painted. Tape the chrome outer ring off as I did if you do not want it black. Yellow painters tape this time, but the blue stuff is fine. I took off the Volvo emblem and slash, but you can tape that as well. Those little push on washers take patience to get off the emblem without breaking the pins. There are clips that slide off of Six little posts that hold the grill to the hood itself. They slide sideways and lift off the posts easily.
I now have two white 850s with black grille.

I added the rubber lip to the wagon as well.

Have Fun.

[RigsPGT]

I've messed with mine using high gloss black and flat black and although glossy looked business from close, far away you couldn't see the details and it seemed empty. Now I'm sporting flat and the egg crate lines do show a bit.
Here are some pics:

[Ben850]

I did another for the newly painted hood I had prepared for the wagon.

I've used satin on all three and it seems to bring out the best of both worlds.

Finished hood, prepped grille.

Grille done.

The other hood went to the sedan being a bit nicer with no damage.

[mecheng]

I must say, this is a great asthetic mod. The original chrome grill looks dated.

Here are my notes:

I used 400 grit paper (what I had on hand), it came out great but I would use 320 next time. Less work.
Make sure you sand until the finish is dull.

For Paint, I used Krylon Fusion specifically designed for plastic. You don't want a metal paint.
It worked great. I used Satin Black, like the OP.
http://www.krylon.com/products/fusion-for-plastic/

I allowed 10 minutes between coats to dry, before next coat. I think I did 5-6 coats for a deep look.

I let my grill cure inside for 4 days. This helps strengthen the paint and its nice and warm inside in this weather. You don't want to apply or let the paint cure at anything below 10C. 20C is ideal.

While the grill was out, I cleaned the hood and applied some rubber protector on the grill seal.

Here are some pics.

[Scottyy]

Love it!