Hi Guys,
I'm not a chrome fan... so decided to matt black my front grille with exception to the Subaru emblem/badge. Seen a few other peeps do it so wanted to give it a go too.
It was a fun process.. pretty easy too.
Thought it would be useful to show what I did to achieve it and have attached some photo's of what I did. I'm sure you can do it other ways but this way worked well for me.
Step 1:
Take off the grille. As easy as it is to do this.. i managed to snap a bit off and broke an arrowhead off. SO... I took mine to Subaru LIndfield to take off as I didnt want to accidentally break more bits. it literally took Eddie 15 seconds to get off and I left with the grille ready to spray.
I unscrewed the Chrome wings off the grille and sanded both the wings and the grill in entirety with 320 grit sand paper.
I Also masking taped any of the areas that I did not want sprayed. I included the emblem area and the part under the wings. ( I dont think you need to mask the parts under the wings as I had done. I think the tolerances will be ok after spraying it without.)
After masking, you need to spray undercoat with spray Primer.. about 3 -4 coats. Sand back the Primer with approx 400 grit sandpaper to make a smooth finish. That is if you are fussy like me... bumps and marks can show up if you do not sand it all flat. After sanding always wipe dust residue away.
I sprayed the grille and wings separately about 3-4 times again with the Matt Black spraypaint and after drying reassembled the wings to the grille.
Re-assembled the grille myself.. it is actaully quite easy to do ( if you want to do this and need help just ask me) and viola.. a matt black grille front on my sti!
I ended up using Septone Primer and Septone Matt Black (both acryilic)... get from Supercheap Auto.
Cost = $34 - 2 x sprays
Sandpaper = $0 as i Already had. Only costs about $1.80 a sheet at bunnings.
Hope this is useful!
ps. Sorry for the large pics.. should have resized them!