Hello all!

Hope you're all staying safe out there! Since summer is right around the corner, I thought I'd talk about an Idea that I've had for a little while. So, Originally I bought the car with a license plate holder drilled into the grille (yikes) and I've since then moved it to the side and found tabs to place into the holes that match the color of the grille and they don't look half bad. Since then I've been thinking of ways to cover the holes while making the grille look nicer, I came up with the idea of dipping the grille an Obsidian Pearl Black offered by DipYourCar.com (check out their site, its pretty awesome the stuff they got on there). My idea is to basically sand off the top flat part of the tabs I have in the grille so that they are flush with the grille itself, then to spray over it so that it creates a nice finish where you cant see the bumper holes, all while giving my bland grey grille a nicer, dark black finish with some flakes as a bonus :P

My question I guess is, do you guys think sanding the tabs down to be level with the bumper would work in creating that nice finish or would it leave little circle in the dip? do you guys maybe have any better ideas than me? Anythings appreciated boys.

I'll also post some pics later of the grille as it is right now since I probably wont start on this project for another few weeks since i'm still finishing finals, AND I have to wait for shipping for the pearl dip.

 

What year? My 14 base mid and lower portion of the grille is hard to look at, that, the trim plastic which sounds like what you want to plasti dip.

Just know it will be eating away at somewhat quickly, but for how quick easy and cheap it is, I agree worth the shot. Not hard to make our grille look better than it is lol.

Here was my idea...
Use a putty, like maybe bondo or similar, fill the license plate holes and sand down to be smooth. Then, vinyl wrap the mid section there. The plastic dip will probably look smoother on thst material than vinyl would, at least the 1st month or 2.

I used body panel / trim plugs that matched the lower grille at one point. Looked ok, but not flush of course. I think filling it in with some puddy then samding down smooth is the best way to go about it.

Not much talked about here on the forums with this base grille but others may have better ideas.

 

It's a 2016, and yeah I agree the pre 2017 base model grille looks HORRENDOUS with the half curvy grid and half horizontal lines. I've worked with basic Walmart plastidip before and its come out fairly decent (even though I didn't really apply it correctly at all lol). Actually, my dad had the same exact idea as you to get a hardening putty and fill in the holes and sand to be smooth before I spray. The wrap idea I didn't think of but its a very good point the finish would be very nicely flat then. I actually work at a paint store so I have access to bondo putty for a very cheap price. I feel like this might be a lot better than the plugs as it will have less room for error when spraying. Thanks for the tip dude i'll definitely keep it in mind!

 

OH ALSO YOU COULD ANSWER ANOTHER QUESTION FOR ME!! I check out your profile page with pics of your car (looks sick btw, Love the blacked out look) and I noticed you have RSR Downs on your base model without the AVS shocks right? I was wondering if you've had any problems with your shocks with the springs as I've heard they're best with the AVS shocks on the F sport package. Im planning on getting the exact same springs but am worried theyre ganna bottom out my shocks or something!

 

Disclaimer on my bondo idea...i havnt done it or seen it done. Just what I planned to do before my life took every ounce of free time lol.

And thanks, somewhere I had also posted pics of my wheels plasti dipped. I'm not a big advocate of the stuff but those came out well, was asked several times about them no one thinking it was plasti dip. Its gone now, only lasts so long.

I'd forget that idea the springs would be better on F-Sport. I can think of a potential reason why but insignificant if real at all.

They are the RSR Down springs, about 1.2" drop or so. I'm not worried about the shocks. They'll wear faster but if your not going any lower than that they'll be fine! The suspension rides like a sports car, like it could be OEM. They're not overly stiff at all, perfect imo. And it doesn't look "dropped" "slammed" any of that, just looks clean especially with the spacers.

Keep me updated what you do!

 

UPDATE! So I began preping the grill for the spray. Decided to do a test spray on my rear badges as well as my friends Infiniti badges.

Took me a minute to set everything up. I also didnt take the grill off because I'm lazy, although I will do that when I re-dip the chrome next time. At the same time my buddy wanted me to spray his rear badge pearl as well, but I didn't have enough plasti-dip so I decided to go with the rustoleum peel-able rubber coat, which is basically the same thing just formulated differently. Well it turns out the rustoleum is WAYYYY better than the regular dip. The regular dip is hard to get a nice smooth surface even after warming up the can and spraying evenly and properly. The rustoleum just laid itself out so much smoother and came out looking much nicer and complimented the pearls fairly well.

I actually sort of messed up the spraying process because I was indecisive on if I wanted to spray the center grill and honey comb pattern, as It would be a biaatch to take off later and redo, plus the bumper holes and tabs would show through and not look as good. I didn't cover the center grille when I sprayed the chrome outline, so I had a LOT of rubber overspray to get off and I ended up deciding to spray it fully next time, when I have the rustoleum instead of the plastidip base, and I can fix up center of the grille where theres a lot of rock chips and nastiness like that.


The final outcome does not look bad at all though. I am quite happy with the pearl, but I've yet to see it in the sunshine where it'll really look pretty. Here's a picture of my buddies badge and a few more picture of the plastidipped chrome so you can see the difference:





I might work on her a little bit today to see if I can fix up a few little spots that I'm not happy with yet. Other than that, I'd say this was 40$ well spent lol

 

I just got done dipping the bottom grill portion of my white '16 IS300AWD. It came out ok but I'd never do it again. It looks and feels cheap. Like it belongs more on a Jeep than a Lexus lol.

I originally bought HyperDip from DipYourCar.com. That was a colossal mistake. It sprays better than off the shelf Plasti Dip (what I ultimately ended up using on the lower grill), but its final look was unimpressive at best. I paid a premium, waited for a backordered shipment and ultimately couldn't wait to peel this garbage off my car.

Keep in mind I was absolutely meticulous with the prep work and sprayed 6 thin coats after a 50% base coat well spaced out over a day.

I'd really like to black out the chrome on the doors, but PlastiDip is completely out of the question and its a difficult area to vinyl wrap due to the rubber trim....YMMV

 

Yeah skip the dip.

Try this... mine already started peeling like 9-10 mo ths later but the vinyl is fine, I didn't do as good applying.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/183749904583

 

Ha! I was just looking at that seller on eBay the other day. I was skeptical how good the pre-cut blackout kits are. You've got the same kit?

 

I just used the HyperDip on my badges and actually love the outcome of the color and look. It is definitely a matte/satin finish which matches all my chrome delete wrap.

 

yup i got it, its Vvivid brand vinyl so all good. I got full coverage..

Even though I used a blow dryer for any vinyl I've done, since that was precut I thought I didn't need it. I feel like it would be looking better today if I had. So use a blow dryer and be careful not to stretch it as you apply...since its already cut to size this will screw it up.

If fact, i may buy again and look around and what kind of adhesive promoter people have used. Help it to stay in place longer term on the corners and ends.

 

Nice! I just ordered the chrome delete kit. Pics to follow.....