I was in P&P and saw a clean all-black grille to fit my 1992. I grabbed it.

I've been thinking about painting it silver, or even body-color to have a pretend-Classic. But the all-black grilles are hard to find, and I'd hate to spoil one with poor adhering paint that starts flaking off in a few months.

So I'm wondering if anyone has had good luck painting the all-black sorta-matte finish grilles? Any particular brand that works (or DOESN'T)? Would spray primer help? Are all the common brands compatible with Volvo touch-up paint?

Thanks for any help you can give.

Doug Harvey

The main thing is to have an antiseptically clean item to work with.

Here is the way I would approach it:
Wash any dirt or grit off with soap and warm water. Get into all the crevices and corners.
Wipe it down with a wax/silicon remover.
As others have said, sand it down.
I would say use a 320 grit wet/dry paper. Anything coarser would probably scratch the plastic too much.
Wash it down again with soap and water, rinse it off completely.
Wipe it down with a wax/silicon remover.Wear gloves to avoid leaving greezy finger prints.
Prime it.
Give it a light scuffing with 320 or 400.
Clean off any residue.
Paint it.

Not having seen one up close, the question, is what is the original finish texture? If it is not glossy to begin with, you should be able to paint it. If glossy, you will have to scuff sand it so that paint will stick. For most car trim pieces, smooth, glossy surfaces will not hold paint....For paint type, I recommend Duplicolor Bumper and Trim paint, it is fast drying, and dries to a nice matte black finish...

Jay
84 245 GLTi 228k
88 740 GLE 190k

Having spent some time around the industrial painting world, I would echo Jay's suggestion about scuffing the grille. 150 - 220 grit would be fine, the idea is to provide some tooth for the paint to grab on to. Even if it is a matte texture, I'd recomend sanding it up first. Sounds like the bumper paint would be a good choice since I would assume that it's formulated to stick well to plastic. Multiple light coats will give you best results.

And another thing, you should lightly sand the grille to give the paint something to grab on to. (I know I'm repeating myself but like so many finish processes, good results necessitate good prep work.)

Good luck - post pics when your done.
--
Steve in Minneapolis - 1987 245DL 260k (driver), 1986 245DL 162k (resource)