painted grille gone bad

[ptrfair]

okay so im trying to avoid buying a new grille for the SE.

A year ago sprayed my grille with rustoleum chrome paint. With NO Primer. therefore it chipped on me. So i then took paint thinner to the grille and the most of the paint came off.
I bought duplicolor primer, chrome and then clear coat. Its been doing great til the other day i noticed the paint chipping off.

What do i do . .
Do i buy a new grille?
Try to clean it off with paint thinner and just buy krylon silver hammered for plastics?
if i repaint my current grille or buy a new one and paint, do i just krylon and thats it? no primer?

Does anyone know of a billet grille or any other aftermarket grille i can get my hands on?
save me from myself...

[SingsCountry1967]

I used Krylon Fusion- specifically for plastic applications for automotives...this was June of 2006... I do not have a paint chip to this very day and I drive 18k miles per year (so...I've gone 32,000 miles with this paint.) I don't think that the bodystyle makes a diff (mine is 2000)...

I'm not sure what to tell you about getting the paint off...but if you ever do get it back to bare plastic... go with the Krylon... no primer necessary.

[Grimm]

I agree, get something for plastic. I did mine over a year ago with Duplicolor (not for plastic) and it was going great until I saw it the first time I washed it after the winter and it's chipping off.

[chopper442]

I agree....you have to use something formulated to bond to plastic, the Krylon is the best. The grill area takes alot of abuse with bugs and crap...cracks paint - wash - instant flake. Be careful with some liquid strippers(if you go that route)..some are not plastic friendly and will warp parts....

[mas]

the only thing I can think of is that spray balm paint is about half as hard as what the factory or auto body shop uses, they use 2-pack paint. the problem is it contains Isocyanates which over time build up in the blood stream causing death. at minimum an air fed visor should be worn when spraying this stuff and a VERY well ventilated area (for example roof mounted exhaust units). u need an auto body license to buy this stuff here in canada any ways or a friend that works for a body shop all the chemically goodness makes this a hard paint. you wanna go even more tough get DuPont Impron paint, its what they spray big rigs and the like with. you never really see chips on them do you?

the other thing i can think of is that the coats are too thick, I have 5 coats on the fenders of my LeSabre after some arse hit the side and I had to repaint a body panel to the right color from the junk yard. at any rate I have only a couple chips after about 35,000kms since it happened.

I think the easy route though would be using an enamel clear coat. enamel is tough stuff and does come in spray cans, its just harder to work with and will need more sanding. but you can get fantastic results from it. and it shines awesome cuz its a very hard surface.

one more thing if its only chipping down to the primer, its most likely that sanding is the issue. I like a 600 grit surface for parts on the front of the car, just takes an extra coat or 2 to make up for the roughness.

and lastly, they make primer specifically for plastics. easily available at the part store... that is if its just ALL peeling/cheeping off.

good luck man. when I first started painting it was a bit of a nightmare sometimes yes

just remember its 97% prep and 3% painting.