0524VHO

Got my new black headlights in tonight and will probably do the grill tomorrow. Goin from chrome to black. Im gonna strip the chrome then spray an adhesion promoter, then paint and clear. Anyone already done this and have some advice, things to watch out for? Im gonna try to leave the ram chrome, and then drill two small holes where eyes would be and put a couple red leds. (If i'm the first to do the eyes, i copyright it.)

STate

I did this on my 04.5. I took my chrome grille off, laid it on the workbench and sanded it down with my craftsman mouse handsander. Worked pretty good only took an hour or so. Was a little hard to get in the tight corners, but you can do those by hand. I cant remember what grit sandpaper I used but I believe it was pretty course to create a rough surface for the paint to adhere to. I then cleaned it with Alcohol/Acetone, and laid it out on a piece of cardboard and used Krylon Fusion. This is a rattlecan you can buy at Wal-Mart pretty cheap. It is supposed to adhere well to plastic surfaces, and it does! I used the color Satin Black. Came out real good, and have only needed to pull the grille off once since the first time to repaint it due to rock chips. BTW I tried to pull my ram head off to keep it chrome and broke it. Had to glue it back on. Anyway, this technique does work well if you have a dodge bug deflector, that ram head just pops off and on. I painted mine satin black as well.
Good luck

glocklove

Use blue painters tape and a razor blade and you can mask the Rams head.

13MWZ

I did mine a couple weekends ago. I'm not happy with how it turned out. Maybe I was expecting too much but it looks like it was painted with a rattle can......wich it was. The color paint I used was suppose to match my truck's paint, but it doesnt. The clear coat I used (forget the brand) had a slight tint to it making the color differance in paint even worse. So yea, I'm ready to toss my grill in the trash and buy one from a sport. I too am almost done with ditching all my chrome and either painting it body color or black (grill was the only thing I painted body color, didnt want it to look too much like the low end work truck) It looks ok in pictures and anywhere from 10' away or more, but up close looks like junk

CoolumConst

coat the ram head with vasoline before you paint. It will come out great. I am thinking about going all black or get rid of my black wheels.

nriver

I bought a ST grill from a guy who went chrome. No need to remove the chrome.

I also rattle canned it. It looked good at first. I never clear coated it, so it faded. Thinking I needed the clear coat to help with the UV protection, not sure. I need to pull it and some other parts and repaint in the spring.

JTProuhet

You want to sell that grill? And go ST? LMK how much