Plastidip and losing the chrome.

9Hooker

9Hooker

New member
Plastidip and losing the chrome. *pics*

Gents,
First I must say I HATE the chrome and the SR5 front bumper. I'm a huge fan of the Trail's "Rubbermaid" fenders and front bumper. The front of the SR5 with the chrome horizontal strip does nothing to break up the large front bumper. Think horizontal stripes on the fat girl...

So I decided to do what others on the forum have done and get rid of the chrome!

Here are a few pics. I spent a little extra time and pulled apart the factory headlights and sprayed the chrome housing satin black. Again, chrome makes me wanna hurl and the Trail's headlights are the dogs bollocks. In fact the only thing I don't like about the trail is the non-functioning hood scoop. This is a truck, a behemoth, why put hoop earrings and sequins on it.

The headlights came apart no sweat after two trips each to the oven for a couple of minutes @ 200 degrees. It heated up the rubber adhesive enough to get a wide flat head screwdriver in there and pry it apart. Putting it back together was easy. Throw both halves in the oven, smash them together. Put the screws in that clamps them back together. One more trip to the oven and finish tightening the screws down, careful not to over tighten them.

I also threw in FIAMM horns. I only had the one horn. A quick snip of the clip and a foot of new wire and viola, new horns. No need to use the supplied relay, just wire in parallel and the horn's scrotum drops. I would have liked an octave lower like my Audi but for $20 you can't beat it.

The chrome pieces came off just fine, very easy to do. I had the bumper off already so the front chrome was a snap. For the side panels I just pulled the rocker panels and they came right off. The rear deck wasn't done yet and only one door handle got treatment yesterday. The door handles and rear bumper will be painted on the car while the "4 Runner" chrome will come off when I disassemble the rear hatch. There's no way I'm taping off something that intricate.

Overall took the better part of a day due to temperature, breaks, and wind (for painting purposes).

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Nice! How hard was it to pull apart the headlights?

I had to bake them in the oven when I did it with my tacoma headlights...
 
Looks awesome, especially the headlights.........I'd be curious as to what it would look like on the BP color.
 
Our trucks look similar. I went the vinyl route but left my headlights stock. I still have to purchase the TE rear "4runner" surround.
 
9Hooker said:
Gents,
First I must say I HATE the chrome and the SR5 front bumper. I'm a huge fan of the Trail's "Rubbermaid" fenders and front bumper. The front of the SR5 with the chrome horizontal strip does nothing to break up the large front bumper. Think horizontal stripes on the fat girl...

So I decided to do what others on the forum have done and get rid of the chrome!

Here are a few pics. I spent a little extra time and pulled apart the factory headlights and sprayed the chrome housing satin black. Again, chrome makes me wanna hurl and the Trail's headlights are the dogs bollocks. In fact the only thing I don't like about the trail is the non-functioning hood scoop. This is a truck, a behemoth, why put hoop earrings and sequins on it.

The headlights came apart no sweat after two trips each to the oven for a couple of minutes @ 200 degrees. It heated up the rubber adhesive enough to get a wide flat head screwdriver in there and pry it apart. Putting it back together was easy. Throw both halves in the oven, smash them together. Put the screws in that clamps them back together. One more trip to the oven and finish tightening the screws down, careful not to over tighten them.

I also threw in FIAMM horns. I only had the one horn. A quick snip of the clip and a foot of new wire and viola, new horns. No need to use the supplied relay, just wire in parallel and the horn's scrotum drops. I would have liked an octave lower like my Audi but for $20 you can't beat it.

The chrome pieces came off just fine, very easy to do. I had the bumper off already so the front chrome was a snap. For the side panels I just pulled the rocker panels and they came right off. The rear deck wasn't done yet and only one door handle got treatment yesterday. The door handles and rear bumper will be painted on the car while the "4 Runner" chrome will come off when I disassemble the rear hatch. There's no way I'm taping off something that intricate.

Overall took the better part of a day due to temperature, breaks, and wind (for painting purposes).
]
Click to expand...
Absolutely great job and write-up 9hooker!! First one I've seen to open up the headlights and has inspired me to do the same over Thanksgiving holiday when I have some time.Had mine out before but was scared to try to open them by heating in the oven.Thinking about doing a retrofit myself now, as I have some S2K HID projectors already. I was worried about the lens coming off clean.

If you need any help with the back chrome garnish ,let me as I had mine off already to paint with the flat black fusion. If I had it to do over again I would probably wrap it.I know you said you vinyl wrapped before but don't know how long it's been. The new 3M vinyls (the 180C,180CR3 and Di-Noc) are applied dry with a heat gun and are so easy to conform to irregular shapes . Truely great stuff and so easy to work with compared to what I used to work with in wet applications.
 
KevinG said:
Lookin pretty slick! I really like the headlights...any negative performance from them?
Click to expand...

No negative performance. The part that was painted never receives any light from the headlights. In the 5th to last picture you can see the projector actual and in the 4th from the last picture you can see what I painted. It fits in front of the projector. I originally thought I would have to tape off the projector but I didn't.

As for the back, how have people done the hatch portion and left the "4Runner" the gunmetal color? I thought to just tape it all off when I pull it from the body and with an xacto knife cut around the letters.
 
Looks good

You are a much braver man than I am. I would be afraid to tackle something like that mod, I'm sure i would break something or not be able to put it back together. Looks great though really stand out. great job.
 
Nice work, especially with the headlights! I covered the entire side of the truck when I painted the door handles, pretty brave of you to only cover a small section.

Be forewarned, the front strip chips easily. I repainted it after 6 months which is why I opted to purchcase the TE fog lamp covers (which should arrive this week) so I don't have to repaint those too.
 
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Did the rear today. It looks like the rear tail lights should come apart very easily. Next weekend I'll take that up.

Here's the rear. I will be buying the "4Runner" thing for the rear piece. It looks too naked without it.

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This plastidip stuff seems amazing to work with! Looks really good!

I'd tried searching here, as well as on google and youtube, but cannot get a clear answer. Does anyone know if this stuff can be applied to painted surfaces (like the front bumper cover) or wheel flares?

I figured you can since a lot of folks are putting it on painted/clear coated wheels.
 
Yes, it can. It acts just like spray paint until it dries. Essentially it's a latex paint in a can. It needs to be applied a bit thicker than regular spray paint. It should be applied thick enough so it looks like a smooth surface, but not too thick that it runs. One can says 5 sq ft. I used 2 cans on all the chrome except for the door handles. I will need another can to finish that up.
 
Did you ever end up blacking out the tail lights?

I think it would really look much better, but wondering how it would affect the light reflecting from the bulb....

Ill most likely start blacking out (or mag-graying out) my chrome after the mid gen refresh comes out, but for now I'm still really happy with the chrome contrast on the mag gray. Silver on the other hand looks 100x better blacked out.
 
I'm really bummed about the tail lights. I may as well just order TE tail lights if that's the case.

I moved within the last couple of months and haven't found the time to work on the tails. I will soon hopefully.
 
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