I have the half chrome bumpers and chrome strip grille on my tahoe and i want them black. can you sand off all the chrome (gradually getting up to like 1000g) then prime it good and paint it? someone told me you couldnt but i cant see why not. im not gonna pay $200 each for paintable bumpers then pay to paint them but if i can just paint these then i want to do it.

 

You can paint them, but unless you strip off all the chrome.. the paint will most likely flake off in places eventually. I did my Tahoe chrome grille last year, and it has lots of chips in it were you can see the chrome. I scuffed it, adhesion promoter, color, and cleared it. Guess I need to do it again this year.

 

damn, sounds like you did it all right. maybe you didnt get deep enough thru the chrome? bugs hitting it all the time doesnt help either im sure..

 

If you roughed it up and used self-etching primer I think it would work, cause it actually etches into the metal... I believe adhension promoter only works on plastics/fiberglass, not metal. Just a thought, I may be wrong...

 

grill is plastic... said I just scuffed it....... you would want to take more of the chrome off if you want it to stay longer... unfortunately, the grille sees lots of road debris....

 

Sorry I thought you said chrome bumper... Sorry it has been a long day..


Since it is plastic use the adhension promoter like was mentioned above but don't go up to 1000g, the paint will not attach to anything IMO I would start out with 220 then move up to 320, apply adhension promoter then filler primer then paint...

 

^ Good advice above. That's exactly what I did with the grille shell on my old rig. The results were great and very durable.

For actual chrome plating you'll want to have the piece media blasted and then prepped & painted just like any other panel. Believe it or not, this isn't difficult or overly expensive. A buddy of mine recently did this with his rear bumper, and the blasting/prep only added $100 to the bill. Good luck...

 

can u just buy that grille strip already black?? instead of having to paint it. id buy bumpers too if they were solid black and have the tow stuff on it. im not gonna buy bumpers then pay to paint them tho, that would get too high.

 

Best bet is to knock it off with a ruff grid paper, then etch it, sand that down smoothe, then paint...

John

 

that would prob take so long, maybe i should just wait a few weeks and buy some paintable ones hahaha. can i get a replacement rear bumper thats paintable that accomidates all the tow package crap?