Paintable Grille

got a 91 OCC but its been painted (all the moldings, etc) and emblems all removed. Its got a chrome Caprice grille instead of the OCC grille. I am trying to decide if I want to source an OCC grille and use it, or I really like the look of the painted grill surrounds alot of the caprice/impala people run. Any good paintable grille surrounds out there that you guys have used? or any luck stripping the "chrome" off these and painting them? besides the stainless around the side windows, its the only chrome on the car, so I'd kinda like it to go.

PhantomCF1 has fiberglass paintable grilles that they make. I can't speak to the quality of the grilles, but the scoop hood I got from them was nice for a fiberglass hood.

PhantomCf1

thanks for that. secondly, has anyone done anything with the tail lights on this forum? I have seen some online with the bezels color matched to the body instead of this whatever color it is.... that should be straight forward and prep and paint as normal... anyone have any luck blacking out the stainless trim around the windows on the side? not using plasti dip or something ricey like that... just making a nice clean cruiser out of it... and the grille and window trim is the only thing bright on this car at the moment (besides the wheels).... its supposed to be shippped to me next week or possibly the week after depending on what we can work out, and i want to get right on it when it gets here.

Mine are color matched to the body. The only advantage to that is that there are two colors of bezels. A reddish one is for the 91, and the black is for the 92. You can use either if you match the paint.

It is nearly impossible to cover the small bits of chrome/stainless on the cars in a classy manner.

I painted my OCC grille to match the body with satin black paint over the chrome, and I have a spare that is monocolor to match the body. It is also painted over the chrome.

Got the flyaway panel today - and wiper arm , Fred. Thanks. Yes it’s a 91 so it has the reddish / purplish bezels. I’m planning on having my paint guy do those for sure. Do you have a picture of the grille ?

Secondly, so you have a spare occ grille for sale? Is the emblem stuck on or in a recess? Either way, how’s the paint holding up on yours? What prep work did you do to the “chrome”?

I had a custom shop paint my car, and they did the paint on the grilles. The all red one has not seen the light of day. The black and red one has some chips from road debris. I believe the shop just sanded them. The tail light lenses were clearcoated to make them look new.

I do not have a spare grille for sale. The emblem is glued on inside the small rectangle. Both of the grilles had the rectangle filled, and smoothed over, then painted body color.

I have a 91 left tail light on ebay, and would discount it to $75 plus shipping for a forum member.

I also painted over the chrome caprice grill. I just sanded and primed it and handed it off to the body shop. It’s held up well over 8 years.

Zanethan wrote:

I also painted over the chrome caprice grill. I just sanded and primed it and handed it off to the body shop. It’s held up well over 8 years.

When I got the car delivered it had the OE OCC grille in the back so I wound up getting the center section painted and I put it back on. I like it better thanthe caprice grille because it makes the OCC look more unique than the others....