so i was searching on the forum for the grill color and no one was much of a help, so i decided to just wing it and here are the results, i actually found the EXACT color match of the front grill by coincidence.




i was a little eager to put it on so i didn't get a chance to wetsand and rubbing compound, but i'll get to that later . if anyone is interested in doing this themselves, it personally only cost me 5 dollars because i had all the other supplies lying around. BUT, what you will need:

a spray bottle of water
wet/dry sandpaper (i chose 2000 grit)
rubbing alcohol
acetone (not necessary, but quite handy if you mess up)
cotton pads
automotive primer (not necessary but makes saves paint and requires less coats)
a bottle of Duplicolor Import Auto Spray: Graphite Grey Metallic $4.97 at autozone.. i believe the number is.. 8800928
a bottle of clearcoat

prepping: take the 2000grit wet/dry sandpaper and sand down the emblems a bit only enough to see a couple scratches in it. take the rubbing alcohol with the cotton pads and clean off the excess.

place your emblem on a place to spray. after trial and error, i found placing it outside under sunlight speeds up the process and allows for air circulation. primer a light coat. be sure not to touch until it completely dries, maybe in about 10 minutes if left under direct sunlight. wetsand if any lumps come out. spray a light coat of the Duplicolor, wait till the paint gets a little tacky and spray another coat. Wait till it completely dries and wetsand the imperfections. clean with rubbing alcohol once again. spray another 2-3 coats (or to your liking). Once it is to your liking, spray one light layer of clearcoat (i cannot emphasize this enough), it MUST be very light. Let it completely dry and repeat with a few thicker coats. When done, wetsand and rubbing compound. If you mess up anytime along the way, you can always use acetone to remove everything and start off fresh. More pictures up later.

 

Looks good. I'm interested to see how it holds up after a few thousand miles...

 

Nice write up and pics. Looks good!

 

should be fine, being that i put a LOT of layers of clearcoat on the front end, not so much on the rear badges though.

 

You should open up badging service. LOL. Sell them the new painted badges while they give you their originals. I bet some people would be willing to do it.

 

I'm already set up to do it. I do all the accessory work at JM Lexus in Florida. Mostly we've done OEM colors for our customers, but we had one chick paint her's pink that we put on her Obsidian IS. Some small vinyl decals went with it too. If you're not a do it your self type, drop me a line.

 

is this color similar to the black pearl emblem?

 

Very interesting...



toHn

 

i wouldn't say it's similar, but it is dark and it matches the factory grill. i just can't justify paying over $100 for black pearl emblems when you could do this for literally a fraction of the cost

 

Rubbing Compound will remove alot of paint, I would start with a cleaner wax first.

 

hope it holds up! my front lip is murdered with rock chips from being so low