was the plastic exterior trim on my 01 F250 originally black or grey? I was thinking of repainting the running boards, side mirrors, door handles, front bumper trim and bed trim with that Dupicolor bumper black. Want to make sure and keep it factory in appearance.

 

That's funny you should say that (matching blacks), especially on a 2001. Back in 2001 at the SEMA show, I met a man in the Ford booth who told me that his entire job at Ford was to simply to "match the blacks" on all the plastic trim. This included running boards, cowl cover, mirrors, etc, as well as plastic trim in the engine bay such as airbox covers, radiator shrouds, etc. The amount of attention Ford spent on matching blacks depended on the model. For example, more effort was spent on the engine bay of the Mustang and Marauder than on the Ranger pickup.

It is hard to say how successful the guy was with the Super Duty. The running boards to the Excursion are a very different black/gray than the the running boards to the trucks. The lower front spoiler dark gray differed in color from year to year as often as the design changed (vented, non vented, braced bumper, non braced bumper, etc)

And none of the lower spoilers matched the lower valance trim to the bumper, which did not match the dark argent grille trim either.

So I'd say, any dark gray you pick would neither be less than or greater than the matches made at the factory. The real question is, will the paint stick.

 

so it was originally dark grey not black?

 

From memory I think it was both, bed top trim was grey. Wiper cowl, door handle, mirror trim were black. I painted the bed trim, rear window surround and wiper cowl black probably 10 years ago now on my '97 F150 and it made it look really nice compared to the faded black pieces and the grey bed rails before hand.

Getting it to stick takes some elbow grease, a good plastic primer and I clear coated over the black when I was done.

 

anyone have any pics of thier painted trim? I am planning on using the bumper black paint as it is specifically designed to be used on trim plastic.

 

I painted my lower valence black


I also plan on doing the bed rails and bumper pads and windshield cowl. My steps are still good and mirrors are going to be switched out in the next year so not worrying about them

I did a simple green cleaning, 2 costs of primer and 4 coats of duplicolor trim paint

 

was the primer your choice or required?

 

What I was trying to convey with my earlier post was that it (which specific plastic piece is "it"?) was originally (which year is "originally"?) a lot of different shades of gray, depending on the part, the year, and the material texture.

I did a lot of custom tweaking on my factory front bumper (of the 99-03) body style. I've actually been through or hybridized 4 bumpers... a 99, a 2000, a 2001, and a 2003. All of the plastics have been slightly different colors.

I had my original 2000 plastic valance panel painted body color black at a body shop with polyurethane and a flex agent added. It came out the best, but I gave that bumper away to friend that really liked it and wanted it on his new truck.

After giving away two more front bumpers to another friend that kept rear ending people, I finally got around to mounting a 2003 bumper I had been storing. By this time, I couldn't afford to have a body shop paint the plastic valance, so I rattle canned it black.

Here's how it came out. (ignore the yellow arrows that point to the front hitch, this pic was originally taken for a different reason). Notice that while the bumper valance is rattle canned "gloss" black, the lower spoiler is left unpainted! Yet it still looks factory. So my point is, I wouldn't worry too much about exact shades.

 

This is the paint set that I used to rattle can the plastic valance in my pic above:

 

I chose to because it will get hit by rocks and bugs and wanted it to endure