Painted front grilles yay or nay?

[Free Spirit]

ATM I have a rtr light grill on my 2017. And as is typical with rtr the product is failing (low quality junk). And the lights are going out little by little. So I'm trying to figure out my next step and I can either remove the lights and run the rtr grill with no lights (not terrible but it also doesn't look that good either). Or I can get some custom car grilles 100$ for the mesh or 400$ for preassembled. The only issue is my stock grilles are both slightly faded (bottom one) and the top one has some weird white marks/scratches. Car is black and I'm wondering if either going gloss black, or paintmatching the grills would look good or bad with the car. Or maybe a satin black? I could also toy around with the idea of getting it wrapped but once the mesh is installed that all becomes alot harder so I was going to cut the grille then take it to a shop to be painted or should I just bite the bullet and buy the preassembled grilles they offer so I don't have to worry about any of that and I retain the stock grills Incase I sell the car. (And I'll just trash the rtr because looking online they are worthless on resale value). Please weigh in some advice.
Added some photos of my car for reference and the marks on the oem grill that I would want paint to hide. I tried removing them already but nothing got them out.


Every thread I come across has said painted looks like shit but it's all referring to painting the fangs a different color like white or red and not black. Couldn't find any other info.

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[Snakebyte]

I'd be interested to see grilles that have been painted. I was thinking that a graphite, gun metal, or similar metallic in the gray color family might look good.

I considered Race Mesh (either black chrome or spotted leopard) to lighten things up, but I'm not ready to shell out that much money. Again, I hope we have some members that actually got good results when painting their grille.

 

[S550HPP]

Buy new and get satin / matt PPF is ideal. Otherwise just degrease and spray with satin or matt black buy at autobody supply store. If not pitted get PPF.

Road grit is torture to all front end.

 

[Free Spirit]

Buy new and get satin / matt PPF is ideal. Otherwise just degrease and spray with satin or matt black buy at autobody supply store. If not pitted get PPF.

Road grit is torture to all front end.

My concern is one I glue the mesh in PPF will be hard to apply or remove it was thinking paint would be best unless I just buy the full replacement for 400$ which won't need anything since it'll be new without white marks or scratches. But I have been looking at the 18+ model grilles and gloss black painted grills do kinda look awesome.

 

[S550HPP]

Just get a low mile one from recyclers or midway mustang...

 

[Free Spirit]

Just get a low mile one from recyclers or midway mustang...

They all go for about 150-200 from recyclers. I can but brand new from Ford for that cost. Also the more I see then the more I think a gloss black grill would look amazing. Might get some quotes

 

[djcodeman]

Matte hides defects better
Gloss draws your eyes to any small defect

 

[Free Spirit]

Matte hides defects better
Gloss draws your eyes to any small defect

True, but the textured abs doesent hide defects well at all. I've also seen the gloss grilles in the 18+ and gloss looks great. Sure it'll show defects but so will anything. I hate matte with a passion. Looks terrible

 

[Free Spirit]

Matte hides defects better
Gloss draws your eyes to any small defect

That brings up another option, painted gloss black, paint matched or vinyl wrap vinyl will probably hold up better and I can have it rewrapped as needed but not sure if it'll be cheaper long-term to just have it painted, thoughts?

 

[S550HPP]

They all go for about 150-200 from recyclers. I can but brand new from Ford for that cost. Also the more I see then the more I think a gloss black grill would look amazing. Might get some quotes

My HPP is gloss black it's looks good but gets dirty fast and pita to clean the upper and lower must grates that are closed off I just give it quick wipes. CaS is same. It is very though though I need to replace my entire front end PPF it's so pitted after 45$K miles in three years but grill still looks fresh.

 

[Free Spirit]

My HPP is gloss black it's looks good but gets dirty fast and pita to clean the upper and lower must grates that are closed off I just give it quick wipes. CaS is same. It is very though though I need to replace my entire front end PPF it's so pitted after 45$K miles in three years but grill still looks fresh.

With the mesh from custom car grilles the only part to clean will be the flat spots borders and the 2 angle pillars. Should be pretty easy. The mesh I'll just hose off and leave. Would it look better to be gloss black, paint matches shadow black, or vinyl wrapped gloss black. Hell I could even have it wrapped forged carbon which would hide scratches better and still look good

 

[S550HPP]

No one's gonna notice really. Just assume they are a consumable like tires and oil. RTR look good it you spray it with satin black will look good for year at least don't even have to take it out.

Might try white in line with 90s fad hitting Ford showroom soon hahah.

 

[Free Spirit]

No one's gonna notice really. Just assume they are a consumable like tires and oil. RTR look good it you spray it with satin black will look good for year at least don't even have to take it out.

Might try white in line with 90s fad hitting Ford showroom soon hahah.

Well I have to take the rtr out to remove the lights either way. Honestly I'm stuck between cutting the grill my self and having it painted (I think it would look really damn good after seeing socals post about all his trim being painted even the fog lights being gloss black look awesome). Or just paying the 400+tax for custom car grilles to cut a new OEM grill install the mesh and ship it to me. I really want it painted now but idk if it's worth dealing with it. But I haven't heard any complaints about the California grille or any 18+ grille having issues and they are all gloss black

 

[1 old racer]

Due to a road hazard I had to replace my grill. This is one I bought from AM open box that had a bad light. Which was perfect for me since I was going to paint over the lighted rings anyway. I did a complete respray of the whole grill except the mesh. I sanded the areas with 600 and then finished it with 800. applied two coats of adhesive promoter and sprayed 5 coats of satin black. This is the same method I used on my old grill that got replaced after 6 years in which the paint and finish was still in great condition. Oops, I should also add that I also picked a metal bolt on grill pony off of some Chinese company, that took almost 6 weeks to get to me . that was ok because it forced me to allow the paint to fully cure before I installed it.

 

[Free Spirit]

Due to a road hazard I had to replace my grill. This is one I bought from AM open box that had a bad light. Which was perfect for me since I was going to paint over the lighted rings anyway. I did a complete respray of the whole grill except the mesh. I sanded the areas with 600 and then finished it with 800. applied two coats of adhesive promoter and sprayed 5 coats of satin black. This is the same method I used on my old grill that got replaced after 6 years in which the paint and finish was still in great condition. Oops, I should also add that I also picked a metal bolt on grill pony off of some Chinese company, that took almost 6 weeks to get to me . that was ok because it forced me to allow the paint to fully cure before I installed it.

Got any other photos? It looks good but I'm not sure how it would fit with a black car. Thinking gloss black would be best but that's only worth having a shop paint if I cut up my oem grille. If I buy the premade and cut grille from custom car grilles then there is no reason to have it painted so I'd just run it as is and keep my OEM on the side

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