Simple DIY: Facelift sedan painted grill slats.

I was looking at different grills on different websites, and everybody has OEM, and everybody has blackout, and full painted grills, some have real carbon fiber, and others have the ///M stripey things to stick on... not to be a jerk, but i just don't like any of those. and the chrome surrounds, with the black inserts, never peaked my fancy either. the good news is, my car came with an all chrome grill. that bad news is... you guessed it, I don't like it. the chrome is only on the front edge of the slats, which looks cheap IMNSHO (not so humble) i wanted something different, something i don't see every day. I commute 100 miles everyday, and I see 20+ e46's = several blackout grills every single day. I haven't seen anyone do this before, so here's a DIY. i don't need to see any posts about how this only matters to noobs and such. cause removing you're grills is like +4 super easy. just enjoy it. NOTE: non reversible, if done correctly.

tools: hands with thumbs
ground cover for backspray
sand paper or block
knife-like thing
cloth.

Step 1. Don't be useless, open your hood, and pop those shiny little kidneys out!

looks like this chrome is on front of slats, and surrounds only.



Step 2. Take the knife and pop the surround off being careful not to break the tabs... we aren't going to paint the surrounds, it's more practical than masking. also remove the black rubber seal thing.


My kidneys have sustained 114,000 miles right to the face, and it shows, so we clean them.


next, we sand the slats. if you use a sponge block, it fits right into the slats. sand them down to prep the slats. take your cloth and wipe away the dust. I used an old sham wow that my neighbor left out. (the Audi guy) then a lint free cloth to get the fibers off. and we're prepped!
lay groundcover, i.e. newspaper...no pics of this.

I used Krylon's wheel paint because it's tough and it matches the titanium silver almost perfectly, the flakes are a little bigger though...
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/213/sany1884.jpg/
It also stick directly to ABS plastic perfectly, so no priming is needed, and sprays at all angles.

top grill is painted, bottom is not.
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/14/sany1885.jpg/


let dry, reassemble and voila! pop them back in and you are done!
I didn't want to put a clear coat on, because it would look too much like the paint on the rest of the car. I really like the way it turned out, but i parked next to an X5 at work today, and saw where my "original" idea probably came from. I still like it...

thanks! full mounted daylight pics tomorrow.