$165 to paint my grill...haha

[FunkyBuddha]

go to hobby store, buy small airbrush and air compressor kit

go to mazda ask for paint
buy primer and clearcoat from walmart or hardware store

prep the piece yourself and paint it. done. then you can paint other pieces now that you have an airbrush.

 

[Matthew1785]

yea, i know im waiting for income taxes and im taking out a 4,000-5,000 loan, but thats for a new laptop, big screen, rims, and a couple lil things, maybe i should just go with the turbo instead, i love my car and want turbo so bad, but i was thinking why do i need sooo much power, will i really ever use it, it dont seem like many locals are ever wanting to meet up so idk. maybe once i get to know some people all that will change and ill have the use for it, but i also am scared of blowing the engine if i dont get forged rod's and pistons?

is that al your worried about? is stock pistons and rods??? you have a stick you could easily boost to 6-7 psi and just baby the car plus you said your thinking about getting a hiboost, just get the hiboost kit with a e-manage... tune it and u will be fine I got more to worry about then you and I'm a AUTO lol

 

[BKJT05]

is that al your worried about? is stock pistons and rods??? you have a stick you could easily boost to 6-7 psi and just baby the car plus you said your thinking about getting a hiboost, just get the hiboost kit with a e-manage... tune it and u will be fine I got more to worry about then you and I'm a AUTO lol

yea i just dont know if i really need the power, the car is my daily driver, i think im going to get obx header, magnaflow catback, injen cai, and then focus on looks, im buying my rims and eibach kit in like a week.

 

[i12drivemyMP5]

haha, its cool. i think im going to try a couple other places and see how much they want, then if not just pay the $165 for the best work. i still might skip the eyelids.

I just got paint & clear to do my grill from paintscratch.com. I have a fiberglass grill that resembles the 3 or the 6 sport grill. I spent 35.00 for the paint/clear. Give it a shot. If it gets chipped then you have the experience & maybe enough leftover to fix & go more. What won't end up getting chipped on the front of the car eventually anyway? You always have the oem to fall back on, if you keep it. WTF, go for it.You can do it. You care more about your car & doing it right than someone being paid to knock s*** out as fast as they can. That's a great head start. It will build confidence for other projects. I too believe in doing things right the first time but I also don't depend on or pay others to do something that I can do myself. How satisfying will it be for you to do it & it only ends up costing half as much & some free time? Very. You would also be surprised at how often you end up with something better than what you would end up with after paying someone else to do it that doesn't give a s*** about anything other than knocking it out & moving on. Huge lack of people taking pride in their work nowadays.

 

[CTt3P5]

yea, i think i might just sell the eyelids though, i think after i paint my headlights black, the eyelids wont look right so ill sell them and use some of the cash for the paint job.

Check out this thread (one of my old ones). I was also trying to decide whether or not to use my eyelids after painting the headlights black. Ultimately I decided not to and sold them. I got a couple of pics (unpainted) on the black lights and some other members posted up pics also. Hope this helps.

http://www.msprotege.com/forum/showthread.php?t=123652999

 

[BKJT05]

im doing it myself

well ive thought about it alot and ive made up my mind, ive decided just to paint my grill and eyelids myself, that way i can have the pride n joy of knowing i did it, plus ive done alot of model cars, rc car bodies etc, so i think i can do a pretty good job on it myself. I ordered everything i need from paintscratch.com. I will keep everybody updated with pics etc when everything is done. THANKS

 

[altspace]

Here's some reference pics of my work.

 

[i12drivemyMP5]

Here's a couple of pics of the one I'm doing. Got the primer/paint/clear. Got the emblem coming. Got the air diverter plate for up top to help with mounting. Not going to be using the chrome trim since it's plastic, the mesh is gone & the date on the camera is wrong. I haven't been putting this off that long. http://www.msprotege.com/members/i12drivemyMP5/GRILL_2.JPG
http://www.msprotege.com/members/i12drivemyMP5/GRILL_4.JPG

 

[i12drivemyMP5]

Here's some reference pics of my work.

Do you have mesh or screen behind grill to protect radiator? That's the other thing I've been thinking about with replacing my grill, how to doing something behind it to protect the radiator. I'm going to mount something behind the grill, probably attached to air diverter plate hanging down behind the grill vs. attaching something to the grill itself.

 

[Robot Romeo]

$165 geez. I know a guy who works at an auto-body repair place who does side jobs. He charged me $25 to paint the grille and my side markers. I didn't know what a great deal I was getting.

 

[altspace]

Do you have mesh or screen behind grill to protect radiator?

I customized a stock lower piece grille to match.

 

[BKJT05]

help

hey my grill came with the mesh to go with it, but how do you keep in hooked to the grill, it just falls off ????

 

[BKJT05]

tested it out

Washed the car today and put grill on to see what it would look like, looked pretty good in black, cant wait to get the paint and get it matched, i think im going to spray the mesh black to make it stand out and match the white and black theme im going for.

 

[altspace]

Your best bet is to use high strength glue. Obviously on the inside. I personally used a epoxy plastic resin.

 

[BKJT05]

Your best bet is to use high strength glue. Obviously on the inside. I personally used a epoxy plastic resin.

does that glue you used have a name and place to buy it? if it worked good for you, im gonna pick me up some. THANKS