Buttocks Enhancement [painting the rear grille]

[dori-san]

First allow me to apologize for the poor quality of the pics.

If you know me then you know I take great photographs. Something happened with the memory card on my camera and I was not able to get the pictures off of it. The only option I had was to plug the camera into our projection TV and view the pictures on there, then I took ANOTHER camera and took pictures of the pictures being displayed.

Nightmare situation, I know.

Anyway, on to the post...

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During the same time I did my first Clay & Wax I also painted my rear grille. I had many intentions of painting the rear after seeing results in this thread but I did not go denette's or LV's route (having all the inner walls painted). Instead I took a cue from DreamerDave and just painted the surface of the grille. Here I'll show you how easy it was, along with everything you need to do it!

These are the materials I used:



Using masking tape, tape off the outer edge of the rear fascia with the inside edge of the tape wrapping into the lip. I taped some newspaper down below to catch any paint that might dribble off in the process, and believe me it helped. Unless you want paint on your garage floor you should do the same.

I used silver spray paint... you can, and may prefer to, use paint. I want to paint something else silver later on that I need to spray and didn't feel like getting silver spray paint AND paint. So I just sprayed some into a paper plate to get enough to work with and that worked fine for me.

I took an old kitchen sponge and cut a small square out of it, just so that it would be easier to handle. Then I put on my latex glove and sprayed some paint onto the plate. I had to respray every couple minutes to keep enough wet paint puddled there to work with.



Just dab the sponge into the paint and allow it to soak some up, then when you have enough on the surface of the sponge you just dab it onto the rear grille. Apply mild pressure and just take it easy, being careful not to squeeze the sponge or press paint into your holes:



Just continue on re-spraying into your paint tray, dabbing, and re-dabbing until you've got a good coat of paint all over the surface of the grille. It may look a little rough in spots (depending on how well you did) but don't worry. I let it dry for a few hours and came back to do a second coat where I touched up the rough spots and a few places that I missed. This picture was after the first coat... don't worry about the spots in the holes, it's not paint it's just dust that I didn't clean out completely:



This is how it should look when you're finished. Allow it to dry first before removing any of the tape, just to be safe:



Once you've let it dry sufficiently then you can take the tape off, and you'll slowly see a gorgeous rear end emerging with every piece you take off:



Once you have all the tape and paper off, take a step back and admire your work. The rear grill now REALLY pops and it gives the car a more elegant flare to such a dull black plastic rear end. I think it makes the car look that much more exotic:



Here is the photoshoot thread, with better quality pictures since painting the grille and having a fresh coat of wax.

Just my opinion, but I think this would only look good on brighter colors. Red of course, it works well on Sly too (DreamerDave), and I think Cool and Pure may look good this way as well. On darker colors (black, green, blue) the plasic piece blends more with the dark paint and doesn't require this addition... however, if you want to do it, be my guest.



I hope everyone enjoyed this post and found it beneficial.

I enjoyed writing it and again I'm sorry about the poor picture quality.

[solli4me]

For a minute there, your title sounded like a Tony Little Gazelle commercial.
(Off topic)You know you can download an online "media card recovery" service for about $39.00. It works as long as the sectors aren't corrupt. If you accidently delete the pics, you're able to retrieve them as long as you don't overwrite with new pictures.

[DreamerDave]

Looks fantastic! Looks great on that Aggressive. At first I wondered why you didn't use a sponge-on-a-stick brush, but then I realized that your method probably is easier and more goof-proof (and much more touchy-feely ). And wasn't it surprising how little time it took? Probably took more time to mask off than too paint.

I wish there was some way to sell this method:

So, Dorri is it? Tell the people in our audience how little time it took. And your not a professional painter, are you? Yet look at those results! Ladies and gentlemen, that too could be your car with the new Solstice Rear End Sponge! Just three easy payments of $29.95. But wait. Because you a forum member, we'll make the first payment for you!"

Hmmm....Maybe I should work on the name?

[FireSol]

I like it! Especially with the RED

[AztekzRpurty]

Good job. Looking forward to the final pic.

[Critterman]

By not painting the outer edge I think it will look great on all the cars. If I ever let the car sit long enough, this is something else I will have to do!

Great job Dori

[PURE_Fun]

Thanks for the great Tutorial. I am going to paint mine also but I have looked at the honeycomb portion of the grill in detail and the problem is they hold water because of the angle the honeycomb is. So I thought of taking a dremil and drill out the back and open them up. I counted about 200 holes..if it takes 3 minutes a hole that means about 10 hours of drilling, so maybe I will do this next weekend.

I want to remove the rear fascia to do the work. Do I need to get new retainer clips when I pop the original ones or is the originals re-usable??

[AWhatstice?]

Originally Posted by PURE_Fun So I thought of taking a dremil and drill out the back and open them up. I counted about 200 holes..if it takes 3 minutes a hole that means about 10 hours of drilling, so maybe I will do this next weekend.

Not sure if you really want to do that, Pure. Other threads have discussed doing that and found that what's behind the rear fascia might not be what you want peeking out after you drill out the honeycomb.

I had my dealer paint the rear fascia of my Mysterious, and I'm really debating painting the honeycomb. I think you're right about the darker color cars and maybe not painting the honeycomb silver, dori-san. But I am so glad I had the dealer paint the rear fascia and the splash guards on my Mysterious - it looks so much cleaner and finished.

[DreamerDave]

Originally Posted by PURE_Fun Thanks for the great Tutorial. I am going to paint mine also but I have looked at the honeycomb portion of the grill in detail and the problem is they hold water because of the angle the honeycomb is. So I thought of taking a dremil and drill out the back and open them up. I counted about 200 holes..if it takes 3 minutes a hole that means about 10 hours of drilling, so maybe I will do this next weekend. I want to remove the rear fascia to do the work. Do I need to get new retainer clips when I pop the original ones or is the originals re-usable??

They're reusable but you might break one or two.

That was my original plan as well but, I'm sure you've noticed this, but the top half of the honeycomb is hiding the silver steel bumper. But that could be easily painted black. I had planned on using a very course grit paper on my belt sander and then just going to town. Then trimming the rough edges with a knife. But I decided that, since it was a no going back operation and I wasn't sure how it'd look, I'd let someone else forge ahead. Keep us posted.

[LatinVenom]

The biggest issue of puting holes in that part of the grill, is weakening of the plastic and the posibilty of noise since it is no longer a rigid structure.

[PURE_Fun]

Originally Posted by DreamerDave They're reusable but you might break one or two. That was my original plan as well but, I'm sure you've noticed this, but the top half of the honeycomb is hiding the silver steel bumper. But that could be easily painted black. I had planned on using a very course grit paper on my belt sander and then just going to town. Then trimming the rough edges with a knife. But I decided that, since it was a no going back operation and I wasn't sure how it'd look, I'd let someone else forge ahead. Keep us posted.

Well that is even a better idea using the sander, so I will try that and it should not take as long, and I knew I was going to have to paint the bumper black.

LatinVenom..thanks for the heads up. The strongest part of the grill is the honeycomb area, it is my thinking it would still retain its strength with the back out of it.

[sonoransolstice]

Excellent play-by -play. I will definately try your method. I am thinking chrome spray paint. Any thoughts?

[brentil]

Dori, f-n awesome man.

Was talking to the group at the Wide Track Warriors car show we had attended and we talked about doing this same thing. This looks awesome and defintely re-afirms my desire to do it.

Some slight differences that I want to try is roughing the plastic up some, using automotive touchup paint, and then clearcoating afterwards. I also wanted to paint the inside of the slots with a dark black to give it even more depth.

[PURE_Fun]

I looked at the grill again, and I take back what I said about using the sander to grind the back of the slots. If I do that I could grind the piece that holds the honeycomb grill part on, so definatly I am going to use a dremil to take the backs out of the honey comb.

I'll take pictures of the work and also pictures with the fascia off the car. I do so much want a center grill exhaust and I am sure that is not possible because of the bumper is blocking at least half of the honeycomb. So we'll find out this next weekend or sooner if it is nice and sunny out.

[Fortimir]

If I didn't have mysterious, I would do that.