Color Matched Denali Grill

[Rocket Man]

Oh man I want to do this so badly... my chrome is pitted, and not looking great anymore.

You won't regret it. I bought the grill off EBay for around $150 shipped and my body shop only charged me $100 to paint it.

 

[crimsonMT]

Nice looking paint, yeah I am in the same boat and deciding to do color match or not, have a white 04. My chrome is bubbling so i have to see what can fix that first.

 

[Rocket Man]

Nice looking paint, yeah I am in the same boat and deciding to do color match or not, have a white 04. My chrome is bubbling so i have to see what can fix that first.

You can't fix the chrome on these grills. Believe me, if you go back in my thread you can see how the chrome is applied to the plastic. Once it starts to bubble or peel, you can't do a damn thing with it. Can't even strip it. I tried everything. I called the chrome shops. Since it's applied to plastic, you'll destroy the base plastic before you'll do anything to the chrome other than make it bubble more as the plastic goes to hell and becomes deformed.

 

[crimsonMT]

You can't fix the chrome on these grills. Believe me, if you go back in my thread you can see how the chrome is applied to the plastic. Once it starts to bubble or peel, you can't do a damn thing with it. Can't even strip it. I tried everything. I called the chrome shops. Since it's applied to plastic, you'll destroy the base plastic before you'll do anything to the chrome other than make it bubble more as the plastic goes to hell and becomes deformed.

Thanks for the heads up, yeah i read through your post. Even though its not ideal i was thinking of chipping the loose chrome off and then epoxying the missing section to level it out at least and then prep and paint over everything. I know I will have to touch up as time goes by but that's to be expected when painting over chrome. One day I will buy a new OEM grill to paint but for now its worth a shot.

 

[pnwdan]

Thanks for the heads up, yeah i read through your post. Even though its not ideal i was thinking of chipping the loose chrome off and then epoxying the missing section to level it out at least and then prep and paint over everything. I know I will have to touch up as time goes by but that's to be expected when painting over chrome. One day I will buy a new OEM grill to paint but for now its worth a shot.

You could attempt to sand the bumps flat and then fill the pits. Chrome is hard though.

 

[Rocket Man]

Thanks for the heads up, yeah i read through your post. Even though its not ideal i was thinking of chipping the loose chrome off and then epoxying the missing section to level it out at least and then prep and paint over everything. I know I will have to touch up as time goes by but that's to be expected when painting over chrome. One day I will buy a new OEM grill to paint but for now its worth a shot.

It will be hard to do; when filling in a primered and painted surface you have a bit of depth to feather it out but with chrome all you have is a sharp edge so you will see the edge of the patch.

 

[crimsonMT]

It will be hard to do; when filling in a primered and painted surface you have a bit of depth to feather it out but with chrome all you have is a sharp edge so you will see the edge of the patch.

I think i will have to take the lesser of the two evils by having that slight edge vs the bubbling of the chrome. Only time will tell how it will turn out.

 

[Fleetgeo]

Lots of good info here. I actually had one of my grilles painted at a body shop. They used adhesion promoter and then painted/cleared it. The only drawback with black is stone chips pop right through...didn't have it for long though as it met its demise from a chunk of retread being kicked up on the freeway. I ended up getting a replacement and settling for a CM emblem...besides it matches my lower grille....and I opted for the one with no tow hooks. Your front end looks nice currently but I'm sure the black grille would look great with those new lights. Love your rig BTW.

Here's mine:

@Red Rocket

Where you get that sick lower grill from been looking all over for one like that trucks looks amazing man

 

[Rocket Man]

Where you get that sick lower grill from been looking all over for one like that trucks looks amazing man

That's a Denali Down Under lower grill. I have the smaller one that goes between the tow hooks. They're no longer available new but sometimes you can find a used one. Good luck though, they're getting pretty rare.

 

[TheAutumnWind]

super hard to find from what I understand.

 

[adventurenali92]

@Red Rocket , I knew your grill was color matched but now seeing the full thread on it I'm impressed! The color is fantastic. When I had my small fender bender back in the end of May, my chrome Denali grille wrinkled just a little in one spot and it drives me crazy every stinking day. I'm even more motivated now to buy a new grille and have it color matched seeing yours haha. The body shop I've been using for my color matches so far, he's done great with small stuff, but my larger bumper skin didn't come out so well so now I gotta haven't redone because it's annoying me lol. But I know of a really good body shop a little further away that a lot of my clients have said does excellent work so I think when I pick up a new grille I'll take it them and give them a shot to see how they do.

 

[Rocket Man]

It was one of my favorite mods for sure. Sure made a huge difference in the entire look of the front of my truck.

 

[justin99baer]

Just picked up an 06 Denali, 90k miles. This is the exact look I have been thinking about! Thank you, truck looks amazing!!!

 

[Rocket Man]

Just picked up an 06 Denali, 90k miles. This is the exact look I have been thinking about! Thank you, truck looks amazing!!!

Thanks. I have since changed the headlights to the Anzo u-bar ones and retrofitted them with Morimoto mini H1’s.