I actually prefer the midnight grille look like Csquared has with the chrome upper and lower bars... I think it integrates into the car much better than an all black grille. The all black dos look nice when you've got the black painted head-light housings, though.

You know.. My factroy chrome grille got pretty chipped up just in the 2 - 3K miles I had it on the car, but the factory midnight grille holds up MUCH better. I have yet to get a chip on the black part (the chrome sections still chip) of the grille yet... knock on wood... and it's been on there for arouns 2K miles. Just beacuse of this, the factory midnight grille is worth the $200 investment IMO.

 

Hmm thanks for the input, When summer comes around I'll pm you and see how your grill is holding up lol. If it's holding up good i might look into it.

 

Hehe... Sounds like a plan, my man!

 

It is called excell. It say for farmers and have really good chip resistance and heat resistance.
No need to prime it either.

 

so if I use either Excell or Krylon I'm just scared would this in anyway make the car look more ghetto? I mean will it look ok and as if it was an OEM grille or would people be able to know that it was painted for cheap, basically would the black grill look cheap if painted?

 

If it's done properly I doubt anyone would ever know the dfference. Although, I doubt you'll be able to match the metallic black paint on the fctory midnight grille... that metallic paint is the main reason I didn't paint mine myself.

 

well I actually don't want the mettalic effect, I just want it glossy black so I'm hoping that using the same directions as Csquared (i.e. Krylon Fusion spray paint in Glossy black & Duplicolor - Clear Coat) would give me a nice glossy black finish which doesn't look tacky

 

It will look perfect. I was in the same boat. I did not want to do it because I like everything to be perfect. I had a 4 years old car with one little ding on it. I took it to the shop to get it fixed on the nxt day because I could not stand to look at it. It was hardly visible. One thing you have to remember. If it doesn't turn out as good as you thought it would be. You can either re-do it or get the midnight grill. That motivated me.

 

Yep it's a nice glossy color. try it, if i went back and redid it i might use a black primer or something, so that if it does chip, hopefully it'll only chip to the black primer and it won't be that obvious there is a chip. But I guess if the rock hits hard enough and it goes back to the plastic then i'll turn up white anyways. I decide to paint my own because of the same reasons as Tg, I figured i wanted the midnight grill, if I get the grill it'll be 300 bucks, if i mess up, i'll still be getting the grill for 300 bucks haha.

 

Thanks for the reassurance guys, I'm in the same boat as you guys, well kind of, if I could buy the grill painted perfectly from anyone then I would pay good money. But there's no one around here I'd trust to paint mine.

As for the black primer, how exactly would you go about using it? Would you spray black primer first and then, Krylon Fusion spray paint and then the Duplicolor clear coat?

 

Yep what you said prime 2 -3 layers then the black then the clear. Good luck!

 

Yeap, apply the primer, Krylon then the clear coat. Just remeber don't go too thick coat. Rather go couple of thin coat than the thick one.

Also remember if you screw it up you can just wait till it dries and sand it a little and paint again. Ask yourself what you can loose. NOTHING. I had a crapy grill could not look worst than what Infiniti left me with. LOL

BTW Infiniti reps stop using cheap crap. This is your final warning. Next if I find cheap things like this on my car I go with other brand. LOL

 

Check out the "Tech Area" and there is a very useful DIY there:

https://g35driver.com/forums/tech-07...e-removal.html

I did it myself and I NEVER "do it myself"! Haa! So yeah, it's pretty easy. If you buy the OEM Midnight Black Grille, it will come with instructions, but I was mostly going by the DIY thread above. There is a step in the OEM instructions that requires you to remove a large rubber/plastic molding on the corner. However, the DIY thread totally bypassed this step and everything turned out perfect -- made it a lot easier.

Hope this helps!

 

cool thanks for the help guys

 

I finally got around to doing the grill...Easy - 10 mins or less in and out for the grill - most of the time was sanding (did 400 grit by hand and then finished with 800). I wanted the true OEM Midnight Black look and found a real close match in paint:

Rustoleum Metallic Enamel Finish - color is "Black Night Metallic" (color code# 7250)

Used Rustoleum Black Sandable auto Primer (2 coats) - Wal*Mart has the black primer in the auto section, Black Night Metallic (4 coats) and Rustoleum Crystal Clear enamel (4 coats). All found at Lowes - or Wallys.

Keys I found were using a quality masking tape (3M Blue) and being diligent about time between coats (needs to be every 2-3 minutes with the clear coat) and the metallic recommends a "dry" quick coat followed right away by a wet, heavier coat (to get a good, even metallic look)...

Came out great. Pictures shortly...