did this about 2 months ago...but figured i'd post it...

So the project begins:

As you can see from the close up....I have the black kidney grill with chrome surrounding it, which you will see on most BMW's.



Another thing that you might not see on all BMW's is the Lower grille on the bumper painted the same color as the car. Didn't really like that too much, since the grille is supposed to be black



amd here is the shot of both...



lift the car a bit...remove the lower grille and the kidney grill



I then removed the chrome pieces from the kidney grill



Once they were all off....i got a scuff pad and sand paper and started going towards the garage so i can start sanding all the pieces down.

sanded all the pieces and grabbed the black primer and went to town...



After a few coats of primer....it sat for a while....then i sprayed the semi gloss paint. Afterwards it sat for about 2 hours or so.....and once everything was nice and dry, i then walked back to the car.....and put everything back on




The Finished Product:







All in all....easy enough job....only took about half the day and also saved me some $$$

 

I like the bottom part but I think the chrome should have stayed.. if anything I think u should have chromed the inner part to match the outer rim.

But gj, its very clean DIY!

 

Thanks

for some reason i just never liked how the chrome looked.

 

Clean!

 

I dont like chrome on yellow, it looks alot better in black.

 

wow, i like how simple that is. but, i do like the chrome on the outer rim of the grill, its just that bmw touch.

but very nice job indeed.

 

I don't see a lot of chrome trim elsewhere, so I'd deff say that painting it black actually looks better than it did before.

 

Looks very nice!

Have you had any problems with chipping on the kidney surrounds? VW owners who've painted their chrome pieces have had chipping issues (even after sanding/prepping the chrome and using a good primer)?

 

i have one very small chip as of now, but oh well...nothing that can't be touched up

 

Thanks for posting this "How-to". It helps us all get smarter.-Bob