lil' IS300

I bought some paint that looked pretty close to black pearl - tested it out on a spare emblem I had and it came out way too dark for the black IS350 it's going on.

So for the people that have painted the emblems black pearl - what paint did you use?

lil' IS300

...thanks for the help...anyone?

ULTiMaX99

iTrader: (5)

i don't think the black pearl emblems people have are painted, but rather black pearl chrome plated.

CoasterG

iTrader: (1)

Bought mine thru the group buy, no paint here.

jsquared

yeah... bought mine at the dealer.... i painted my engine cover emblem black pearl and it turned out a little darker. see my pics in the sig...

lil' IS300

I was referring to the people that weren't willing to spend a ridiculous $300 or so on a few pieces of plastic.

javyLSU

iTrader: (21)

The Black Pearl emblems that you see everyone spending "a ridiculous $300" on are not painted. They are actually refinished, re-chromed, and baked to ensure durability - there's a lot of work that goes into doing this. It's also why the end product is much lighter in color than they would look painted. If you're interested, you can get these much cheaper than $300... I know many here purchased theirs during Sewell Lexus' group buy during the summer, which wound up costing ~$150 after the core exchange. Right now with the CL discount they can be purchased for $240. Be patient and there will probably be another group buy soon.

Javier

lil' IS300

Would rather do it myself for under 20 bucks... or just keep them the way they are. Just looking for the people who have painted it themselves, I know they're out there since I searched and saw it. All I wanted to know was what paint they used...telling me to buy real ones isn't the point of this thread...whatever.

jsquared

sorry if i didn't get to the point the first time. my goal was to match the emblem on the engine covers with the ones i bought. since it was small, i just used touch up paint (the sgm one) and put it in a paint spray bottle and then put on 2 coats of adhesion promoter. then i sprayed like 2-3 layers of the paint. it did turn out darker than i wanted although it still looked good. if you have a dark colored car, it might not look too good. when i was asking paint places about where to get the paint, they said they could make/order some but it would be pretty costly since the smallest they could buy was like a pint... you only would need a little bit to paint all the emblems.

pchang

did you have to remove the bumper to take the grill off when you painted it?

lil' IS300

Gotcha, thanks. I bought a small spray paint can of some factory GM paint for a few bucks. Nice black pearl color and tested it on a spare emblem I had....came out too dark. The color of the IS350 it's going on is black so too dark will not look good.

That's why I'm trying to find that perfect black pearl paint that isn't too dark. I'll keep looking but hopefully someone has the answer?

jsquared

the bumper doesn't have to be removed to get to the outer bezel of the grille. there's just bolts holding the grille in. just open the hood, take off the engine bay covers and you will see them.

as for paint colors, maybe there is a grayish-colored mica paint available somewhere? if the black is coming on too dark, the gray might work out... just a thought..