Hi guys,

Not really a guide as such as I didn't have a clue what I was doing, but thought i'd write it up for anyone else who's interested in doing it.

So started off by removing the chrome from the grill. There are 8 t27 torx screws which hold the grill onto the car. After removing the chrome is held on by 10 or so plastic clips which have to be pushed off gently with a flat head screwdriver.

Time to wet 'n dry!

I started with 800grit wet but after 20 minutes of nothing really happening I decided to drop it to 240 :eek:. After a good 30-40 minutes all over it was looking a little like it (Read I got bored). I then went over with 800, then 1200 grit to refine and left it over night.

Decided to prime the grill in the morning. I gave it 4 very light coats and only had to use 1200 grit on one coat because of a little overspray. I left 15-20 minutes between coats. When touch dry it was put into a carboard box and a hairdryer was blowing through it for a little while on a slow speed.

It was going to rain the next day so decided to get the colour coat / lacquer done later on.

Around 8 hours later I cracked on!

Again 4 coats of VERY light paint went on with no sanding in between, when the last coat was still tacky I starting spraying the lacquer. After 4 very light coats I left the lacquer to harden.

I then used to cardboard box trick and left in the airing cupboard overnight!

This is what I was left with;

The pictures don't quite portray it right, it's def more matt that the bodywork but only if you look close and when the sun is shining on it it's hard to tell the difference!! A good first job, I'm pleased!!

Before;

After, the car needs a clean!;

Thanks for reading (if you got all the way through my drizzle)

Thanks for that.

Now shall I do it :think:

Looks good, I'd do it if I had any colour other than silver

Looks good, I'd do it if I had any colour other than silver

I dunno.... kinda cool;

Good work mate, im really tempted to do mine now.

Nice tidy job mate - all that attention to sanding should make it really durable.

I took off mine and asked the dealer to sand, prime and paint it. Lazy SOB in the paintshop just painted it and I only found out as I now have chromed paint chip marks!

Cheers

Bas

i might do this myself in the spring, what paint did you use?

i might do this myself in the spring, what paint did you use?

Skoda Black Magic, bought from halfords for £10.99!

In total it cost me about £23

Looks good.Why did it turn out to be matt? Do halfords do a gloss coat?

Looks good.Why did it turn out to be matt? Do halfords do a gloss coat?

It doesn't look matt now, only in the last few pics. As you can see on the car is has a fairly decent finish.

It's not exactly the same as the car finish but with £23 work of cans I'd be surprised if anyone could get that finish!

cheers, better mark that project up for spring 2008

cheers, better mark that project up for spring 2008

Thanks for that. There is a guide floating around, but it`s slightly different. Nice to approach it from a different angle and me likes the finished result.

Skoda Black Magic, bought from halfords for £10.99!

In total it cost me about £23

Well done on a very good how-to...... Personally i got mine done at a bodyshop...... They charged me £30 inc. paint and it's a really good finish. I do approx 8000 motorway miles a year and so far i've only touched up a couple of small chips where the primer showed a little.

Cheers

Dave.

Wow, £30 at a local bodyshop is very good...

Mine quoted £100!

Wow, £20 at a local bodyshop is very good...

Mine quoted £100!

It's a pretty good bodyshop too even though it looks like a little backstreet garage etc....... Someone i know off uk-polos.net pointed me in their direction.... When i got there they had three South Yorkshire Ambulances in the place having various work done so i thought.... Hey they must be good!!!!!

When i asked about getting it done the guy even made sure i knew that it might not last with stone chips etc...... but yeah £30 i paid and it's a good job.

Cheers

Dave.

Sweet, sounds like you found yourself a goodun'

No chips in mine yet, but it's only been 5 days!

im not sure but ive been told before that to get a gloss like finish you have to wet and dry the final paint layer to a matt finish before applying the laquer and that will give you a gloss finish.

would be good to hear a body shop persons views on how to do it though.

If the base coat that you are putting on top of the primer is metallic then under no circumstances should you flat it back with sand paper.The reason being that the metal flakes are alumunium and would dull and start to oxidise from the wet sanding proccess.

If the base coat that you are putting on top of the primer is metallic then under no circumstances should you flat it back with sand paper.The reason being that the metal flakes are alumunium and would dull and start to oxidise from the wet sanding proccess.

So would black magic metal flakes dull and oxidise?

Getting confused now as the guide i read mentioned sanding the last layer then laquer.They did not mention metallic paint however.

So would black magic metal flakes dull and oxidise?

Getting confused now as the guide i read mentioned sanding the last layer then laquer.They did not mention metallic paint however.

There seems to be lots of ways to do it, this is just one way...

It's fairly shiney considering I did it with spray cans. I'm going to detail my car soon so I'll take some proper pictures to show.

I think you can also flat back when lacquered and lacquer again, but lacquer takes up to 2 weeks to properly harden so not sure how that works out.

If you want a gloss finish on a lacquer top coat then a decent rub over with rubbing compound should do it. It certainly worked on spraywork I did on my old Mitsubishi which was a two coat metallic with a clear lacquer top coat. After spraying the final topcoat it had a slightly dull rainbow effect to it. A good rub over with cutting compound and the rainbow effect dissappeared and a high gloss finish came out.

Ok finally got mine finished tonight.

Many thanks to Ethos for the excellent guide. There were just 2 points i changed.

1-I managed to get the chrome foil off by using a Stanley knife and scoring around the back of the surround and peeling the foil off by gently sticking my knife under the foil with made it peel off in small sections.This took the whole of the surround back to bare white plastic.

2-I gave 6 lacquer coats instead of the 4 coats. The colour started to change from dull black to a patchy/shiny black by the forth coat.when i had finished the sixth coat and it was dry i was left with a beautiful shiny gloss surround.

I am over the moon with the result and it only cost me £14.50 in spray and wet and dry.:)

Sorry for poor pics it was dark but you can see the gloss appearance.

Ok finally got mine finished tonight.

Many thanks to Ethos for the excellent guide. There were just 2 points i changed.

1-I managed to get the chrome foil off by using a Stanley knife and scoring around the back of the surround and peeling the foil off by gently sticking my knife under the foil with made it peel off in small sections.This took the whole of the surround back to bare white plastic.

2-I gave 6 lacquer coats instead of the 2 coats. The colour started to change from dull black to a patchy/shiny black by the forth coat.when i had finished the sixth coat and it was dry i was left with a beautiful shiny gloss surround.

I am over the moon with the result and it only cost me £14.50 in spray and wet and dry.:)

Sorry for poor pics it was dark but you can see the gloss appearance.

That's a really nice finish you've got there....... Did you use spray cans or a proper spray gun etc....???

Cheers

Dave.

Spray cans, tetrosyl black magic and hycote primer and lacquer. I just put lots of lacquer on to make it shine. Getting the chrome foil off made it finish really smooth too.