Chrome V. Blackened

Blackened or Chromeish

  • Black: wheels, bumpers, grille.....

    Votes: 7 77.8%

  • Chrome: keep front grille as only chrome or black it up

    Votes: 2 22.2%
  • Total voters
    9
T

T?@\7

New member
Well, my truck is black.
It has a generic chrome rear bumper, looks like something off an s10 or something, and the front chrome bumper was modified by the 2nd owner: removed normal turn signals in order to use the passenger side hole for some sort of intake (fvcker turbo'd the thing), and then put two little led trailer signals on there. The only other chrome is the grill/headlight 'doors'.

I know that I will end up with DaveZ bumpers front and rear, which will be black. That will leave my grille & headlight squares chrome and my wheels are brushed aliuminum (want to black em)
What do you think would look better: keep the chrome grill OR get the black one (or paint mine, either way).
I might go take off the rear bumper now just for fun.
Thanks for the input
Ray
 
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I have always liked the monochromatic look, sans the wheels. In other words the body, bumpers, grille, headlight surroundings, mirrors, door handles and other bits need to be the same color and the rims are allowed to be shiny. We had a '98 Grand Cherokee 5.9L Limited, and it was done that way: all pewter with a brushed aluminum rim finish.

Edit: I didn't vote in your poll because I did not see the choice that best fit what I am describing.
 
pics

couple shots
 

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Tornadom said:
I have always liked the monochromatic look, sans the wheels. In other words the body, bumpers, grille, headlight surroundings, mirrors, door handles and other bits need to be the same color and the rims are allowed to be shiny. We had a '98 Grand Cherokee 5.9L Limited, and it was done that way: all pewter with a brushed aluminum rim finish.

Edit: I didn't vote in your poll because I did not see the choice that best fit what I am describing.
Click to expand...


I get what you are saying. The thing with my wheels is that they will never be shiny, unless I really hit with a dremel or something to get a whole new surface on em AND the holes in the wheels, are painted red which I do not jive well with :\ (matches my damn interior lol)
So ill chalk your input up to a black grille instead of chrome, Thanks mate.
 
I won't lie to you and say it is quick, easy work, but it isn't technically hard work either. Just grab a bucket of water, some wet or dry sand paper and (starting around 220 to 400 grit depending how rough they are) and get to work. You want to use a ton of water because aluminum clogs up sand paper very quickly otherwise.

Beyond that, it is all up to how shiny you want to go. I sanded my mountain bike frame with progressively finer sand paper until I reached 2000 grit, then polished it out by hand. The results are a finish smoother than chrome, and essentially an aluminum mirror. You can sand up until 1000 grit, then polish by hand or with a polisher and get a pretty darn good shine too.

Here are my polished aluminum Centerline rims (on my F150). These are not chrome plated, but with a little extra sanding and polishing turned out pretty well. They looked similar to your rims before I cleaned them up.

Centerline1.jpg~original


It's harder to see these (I couldn't find any better pictures), but these rims are also polished aluminum. I didn't have to do any sanding on these, as I bought them new and kept them in a good state of shine.

1-13.jpg~original


It's a lot of work, but in my opinion is well worth the effort. You might start to clean them up and realize they aren't as bad as you thought. They were shiny at one point, and that shine might only be a few buffings away once again.
 
holy sh1t

wow! Now you've got me motivated :D
mine are pretty pitted, itd take some elbow grease for sure which is cool. Hmmmm
 
If there is some pitting, then I suggest starting with 180 grit or 220 grit wet/dry sand paper. Just remember, the coarser the grit you start with, the more sanding marks you will have to smooth out with the finer grit paper. Naturally, it is impossible to expect perfection from anything battle-tested and worn... but there is no reason you can't get them looking darn nice for not a whole lot of money ($25 worth of sand paper and polish). Plus there is the added bonus of knowing you did it yourself and made it look good.
 
true.
How long do you think a 15x10 would take start to finish..... one day? And what do you use as clearcoat, or dont you.
This might be a good route and if I dont like it once they are done and my arms are sore, I can then get em PC'd black.
 
I like your willingness to try it out!

For a single rim I would say it takes a few hours. I like to remove the wheel from the vehicle so it can be moved into the shade (CA heat sucks, as I am sure Florida's does too).

My suggestion is to remove a wheel, take it to your work area of choice with two buckets on hand. Bucket #1 is filled with water for the sand paper, and is used to dunk the paper in and make sure the water is transferring to the rim. Bucket #2 is filled with ice and stocked with beverages ranging from bottled water, soda and any other drink you like to keep on hand. In some cases bucket #2 has been known to contain adult beverages and can have an effect on the overall outcome of the project; some people work better with said beverages, others work less effectively. Choose the contents of bucket #2 accordingly.

I would do the following:

wet sand with 220 grit until the entire rim (front side only, who cares about the back) is uniformly dull in appearance.

repeat with 400 grit

repeat with 800 grit

repeat with 1000 grit

polish a small section of the rim by hand using the aluminum polish of your choice, a micro fiber applicator pad and soft towel to buff it off. If the shine is to your liking, finish the rest of the rim and call it good. If the shine is not quite what you want, you can attempt to polish it a bit more, or sand it with 1200-1500 grit sand paper and repeat this step.
 
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cool mate, thanks for the info! I have fall break from school starting this thurs... and this could be something good to fill my time besides studying, beers and bong hits.
Bucket #2 shall herein be referred to as BEER BUCKET (heinekens or sierra nevadas please and thank you!).
:cheers:
Ray

ps- what polish do you use/recommend? ( i have some never dull, but thats not polish)
 
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I like a good Sierra Nevada, but being that I can see the mountain range they are named after from my backyard I suppose I am partial.

I forgot to answer your question in regard to clear coating them. For me, the answer is no. Clear coat will have a hard time sticking to anything that shiny, and will ultimately lead to pealing and flaking that looks bad. If your rims are smooth and shiny, they should be easy to keep smooth and shiny with regular washing and the occasional re-polishing.
 
I love Mother's Mag and Aluminum Polish. But any paste kind of polish for aluminum should work (chrome polish doesn't work too well).

motorcycle-polish-mothers-mag-and-aluminum-polish.jpg
 
Another tip: wear latex or nitrile gloves to keep your hands dry and to provide some cushion from the sand paper.

Best of luck with the project.
 
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