Grill Paint

[john108]

1968 Charger
I have the grill completely disassembled now.
I looking for guidance on painting the plastic components so they look original.
I have seen posts where a lot of the silver was painted black.
It looks good but my last resort.

How would you paint with 2 color to look original?
How could I paint all those vertical stripes and perimeters silver?
Paint choice: rattle can, epoxy, etc.?
The 3 main pieces, the 2 doors, the headlight rings, etc.

[john108]

I read many posts on this subject, most were over 10 years old.
One comment was that the black was not paint but natural black plastic.
Some spray silver, mask vertical ribs, then spray black.
Some spray black then use a roller or other tool to paint silver on face of ribs.

Now, 10 years+ later, has a consensus been reached?  A new or better approach, new tools or options?

[c00nhunterjoe]

I left my black, black. Hand painted the fins silver, rattle canned the rest of the silver

[HeavyFuel]

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,95015.msg1126854.html#msg1126854

[will]

I cleaned and sanded the grille and painted the verticals and surround silver, I got the paint from totally auto when they were selling rattle cans. Then I masked off the silver and painted the back with sem black, not sure of the shade or glossiness. I did use the paint prep on everything before I painted. I messed up one spot but you can't see it unless you're crawling under the car. I touched up overspray areas with a paint pen from AC Moore. I wish I thought of it sooner, I would have bought more pens and done that instead, almost a dead ringer for the paint.

[john108]

I finally decided on an attempt.
Sprayed the front with the silver.
When totally dry, I used 2" wide masking tape covered the entire  front and made sure it was tight to the ribs.
Then I sprayed the black through the back side.
When removing the tape, it looked very good, no bleed onto the silver.

Thank you everybody. It helped me make a decision by blending approaches.

[gtx6970]

I finally decided on an attempt.
Sprayed the front with the silver.
When totally dry, I used 2" wide masking tape covered the entire  front and made sure it was tight to the ribs.
Then I sprayed the black through the back side.
When removing the tape, it looked very good, no bleed onto the silver.

Thank you everybody. It helped me make a decision by blending approaches.

Ive done maybe a half dozen this way. Never an issue.

Do the same for the head light doors/ then take a NEW Xacto knife and trim the tape from in between the ribs . Spray the black and then after maybe 15 minutes remove the tape( less issues with paint lifting that way)
I use green frog tape ( less issues with bleed under the tape edges btw )

[john108]

Unfortunately, in my haste, I sprayed the doors BLACK already.  I am not looking forward to my remaining options.
But, the doors do look good in fresh black paint!