I just hated the chrome on the front end of my car. To me, it was a serious eyesore and needed to be changed. So, Blackout grills it was.

First off, thanks to A4mods.com for posting the how to!

It's all about the Plasti Dip... that's what you use. I went to two different places [Home Depot + a hardware store] that stocked a similar product... a rubberized undercoating of sorts.

However, you can't use this and achieve the same results with Plasti Dip... regardless of what a Home Depot "expert" might say.



Removal of grills comes first. Once the license plate is off, the bottom grill pops right out.

The upper is a little tricky. Try using 2 screwdrivers... one to hold a tab on one side, the second to pry the next one out. Be careful, they will snap if forced.



Removal of the chrome piece is where you have to be careful. I slowly wedged a narrow flat-head in the side and tried to create space by moving the black portion as far over as possible before trying to remove the chrome piece.



These tabs here are VERY brittle and will snap if forced. I cracked the first one, but it really didn't matter too much.



I washed the grills, sanded them down with 100 grit and then scrubbed em again.



The Plasti Dip is rather thick so it tends to go on heavy if you're not careful. This is the first time I've painted anything in God knows how long so it took some time to get it even.




I did probably six coats, every hour or so, over the course of a day and let the grills thoroughly dry overnite. The finished product looks great!



The reinstall took 5 minutes. Again, on the upper grill, you may have to work from side to side to get the tabs pulled out far enough. I used some needle nose pliers this time which worked well.

I'll post the final product as my sig when I take some pics I like.

A4mods rocks... I'm very happy with the results!

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Installs: Alpine Head Unit | Blackout Grills | RS4 Rear Sway Bar | Strat Short Shifter | Delsa Rear Spoiler | Retro Solutions HIDs |

* Comments may be peppered with sarcasm which are only intended for good times, never maliciousness.