This is the exact look I want. I have the 78 style though,I want to satin black the grille surround and keep the chrome headlight buckets and grille. Im debating doing the bumper black as well, but after seeing yours I think I will. I think Ill black out the ford lettering on the hood instead of shaving it.

Has anyone ever seen the trim down the side of the truck blacked out as well. Kind of curious how that would look, I have a feeling it might look kind of weird.

 

you have a sweet ride there... I have a 95 jeep wrangler that I hunt with... If I did not I would be camoing my rig to... mine is not a good truck to have to turn around on a woods road though... look at the new ford off road trucks and how they have toned down that look... I am sure that they spent a lot of money trying to figure out the best look...

 

Still not sure how to paint the inserts guess I need to go stsre it awhile longer Starting to think about hood letters. Right now I am thinking of leaving the hood letters and replacing the grill letters with a piece of 1/8'x1" flat stock aluminum maybe even painted black to match the little black accent stripe at the bottom any one ever seen something similar? someday i will probably repaint the hod then I could fix it but I don't want to leave the holes or put on a bug shield as I have seen else where.

 

I think black trim would work well with the color of your truck. To me it just seems to go together.

 

Well it has been awhile but finally got back on the grille I picked up this 76-77 a few weeks ago and have been slowly working on it.



I finished up the stripping, polishing and painted the inserts last weekend. I have not seen any just like this with the divided portion painted black and the 'surround' silver but I think it will look good.





I got the old grille off today and thankfully no real surprises will try and get the new one on tomorrow. I know it has been beat to death, but I wanted to share something so I will just post the final product.

 

TexinCali, what paints did you use for the grille? It looks great! I've got to do mine in a few days. I haven't been able to locate the original 'argent' silver around here. Did you use gloss or satin black?

 

Thanks! I used semi-gloss Rustoleom for the black and the silver was a bit of an accident, painted it with a Lowes Valspar "chrome" paint and it did look pretty good but I was worried about durability so I used gloss clear on the whole thing and it turned the shiny chrome into a really nice, IMHO, silver grey.
I also painted the pieces where the "FORD" letters mount and the lower slots on the grille the semi-gloss as well.




I was surprised the clear changed the finish so much but it is what it is can't change it now I am out of blue tape

 

I painted mine but I also got a tube grill.

 

well Murphy struck today I always thought the cheap paint job PO did was to cover the rust but today found out it also covered some front end re-work. looks like the drivers side took a hit and the rad support is dinged up a bit of course right where I need to mount the 76-77 light buckets argggg

Maybe tomorrow.......................

 

I painted the inserts on my 74' F100 low gloss black. lookes great

 

Weres the pics?

 

Finally............



Looks better up close can't see the detail in that pic.



Not sure about leaving the "tabs" silver looked great in the shop not so sure now might go back to silver on the leading edges that is really a nice look. Also was a lot more shiny inside looks like more polisihing in my future. But I still like it better thab before course that was pretty nice too........... guess you can't go wrong with a dent

 

In the first pic, it doesn't even look like the inserts are installed... it looks .. nekkid. I'd black out the tabs.. they're somewhat distracting.

Ya ever wonder why the grill openings are so big on these trucks? I mean, typically it's only the portion directly in front of the radiator that needs to be open.. seems like drag numbers could be improved (relatively) by closing off numerous parts of the grill inserts and grill shell. I guess it was about overall design instead of any aerodymanic considerations.

 

Yeah does look better in real life but may change it anyway. I have just about reached my "I'm working on the truck, honey" limit for a while. One side note just checked out the new lights Sylvania Silverstar man I am liking those!

One of these days I will re-paint and go back to the FORD grille letters but I thought the aluminum tube was a pretty good temporary fix.

 

On the left one I painted the inner grey edge and left the chrome, on the right just all black, I like it with the black bumper.