DIY Black Out Front Lower Fascia/Grille Area (using plasti dip)
 

Using Plasti-Dip application tips from Stiegers thread, I decided to black out the lower lip on the front bumper, and the small area surrounding the lower grille.
Some people do just the lower lip, but I think it looks more complete with the lower grille surround black as well, but it is harder to tape off. Took almost 2 cans.

Im pretty experienced at taping and masking off, but this was still a sort of tough job, there are really no defining lines to go off of for most of it.

- I put my car on jackstands to do this, since the SS fascia sits pretty close to the ground, I wanted to make sure It wasnt hard to get anywhere I needed to. Still had to lay down to get to some spots while actually spraying.

- Clean any surface that will have tape or masking on it with soap and water, clean any surface that will actually be painted with alcohol

- Mask off just outside the area you want to paint, this is your starting point for newspaper, trashbags, or visqueen. And when you pull off you tape later on after painting, these pieces will remain, that way if you mess up and need to re-do, all you have to re-mask is the immediate area around the paint line.

- Add the rest of your masking material as far back as you want to go, I did the hood, fenders, wheels, and windshield.

- Finally, go and put your final tape line, this will be the actual line that determines where the paint stops. Be sure to use as few pieces as possible for this, so its easier to pull off. At least start with one big piece, leaving a lot of excess on the end, and folding it over to give a good tab thats easy to pull the tape off with.

- The curves will be tough, as I said try to use long pieces for the bulk of taping, I used 2 horizontal and 2 vertical pieces on the ends, then went back with whatever pieces I needed to keep everything even.

- When taping the curves, just keep adding pieces over each intersection until it gets rounder and rounder, it will start with one intersection, nearly a 90 degree, then add a piece over that, now you have 2 intersections, etc.

- For the paint lines, always use the "factory" edge, i.e., dont have an edge that you tore off with your own hand on the paint side.

- Once everything is taped off, spray two light coats a few minutes apart.

- You must keep the can pretty close to the car to make plasti dip lay down smooth.

- Next spray two-three wet coats, 25-30 mins apart

- Literally, as soon as you are done spraying that last coat, pull the leading edge tape off!

- My lines came out almost perfect, I have not tested it, but maybe letting the two wets coats dry for about 10-12 minutes would be better. I had a couple imperfections, but you have to get really close up to it to see them.

- I only had two "splotches?" where the plasti dip laid down with a different sheen than the rest of the area, due to spraying technique, but again are hard to notice.

but how did u get rid of wrinkles?

I'm gonna try mine............ :D

Looks nice. What should, by all rights, be a cheesy looking mod the plastidip stuff looks pretty good.

Wrinkles? Like sagging? I acutally had no sagging, not even a hint at sagging, Plasti Dip is much more viscous than normal spray paint so it doesnt try to sag when you put heavy coats on. I just cleaned with alcohol, and the first two coats were very light, then the next ones were sprayed until it turned glossy, then I stopped.



If you mean wrinkling on the edges when you pull the tape, the key to that is pulling the tape off within 30-50 minutes from when the first coat is sprayed, and pulling the tape off instantly after you are done spraying the last coat, while it is still wet

Orange?

Depends, only if its cheddar, could be American, or even Parmesan

Looks really good.. i did mine long ago. Very nice job on the curve and linez. What tape did you use?? I use painters blue tape and the lines were bad the first try because the dried for too long but less than 50 min. Second time i created too edges with like .25'' difference. Spray two coats let it dry remove the first tape while wet and spray again to cover last pieces around the edges. It turn out good too..

I used 3M blue painters tape. Urs looks good too! I really think even 25 mins is too long to dry lol

Looks awesome man. Great job on the lines like Wuiquen said.

Thanks! Yeah the lines are definitely the hardest and most time consuming part of doing this

Nah. I was just joking. If I did black it would look funny on black. hahahahaha

If I had any other color though, I'd do this to mine the way the OP did. I like it a lot and it's about the most cost effective nice mod out there.

I agree, cant black out something thats already black. Orange would be a little over the top but I think it would still look cool

I was going to do a test with orange but I couldn't find any locally.

Since you just have the outline of the grille, and the spears orange(instead of full stripes), I think it would look really good, and wouldnt be too much on ur car. If I get time later I might photoshop it just to see, im interested now lol