thanks!

yea this is how i prepped it for painting...

took out the grill assembly along with the side grills. gave it a good scrubbing with Dawn detergent. then i used a 800 grit sanding pad and scuff all of the chrome parts and billet parts really good. then washed it again. dried it off. gave it a good alcohol wipe down. then proceeded to spray it with the Rustoleum Semi-gloss black.

1. lightly spray it to give it a good base. wait a few minutes (5 minutes)
2. spray some more to get coverage wait another 5 min
3. repeat steps till you get the coverage you like.
4. wait 24hrs before reinstallation

i put a total of 2 coats on all of the parts.

best thing about semi-gloss paint is that it goes on evenly. if down the future it fades..you can always respray to bring it back to like new.

next is my chrome bumpers. but im going to wrap that with car high performance vinyl. ill do a write up on that once i get the project going.

 

Have you washed it since?
also, I read somewhere you were gonna wrap the bumper instead of painting it. why and how much?

 

i washed it today. 24+ hrs of drying time in 60degree weather. no problems. only thing is with this particular style billet grill. the slats on them accumulate water. so to fix that i just busted out the ole leaf blower and dried them that way. i wasnt going to take my chamois and dry each slat lol...


i use this same paint/technique on my old 98 S10 that was air bagged. 4 yrs later the grill still looked as the day i painted it. with regular washing and using a chamois/micor fiber towel to dry it. Rust-oleum is really a good paint. I wouldnt go with anything else.

Rust-Oleum/12 oz. semi gloss black Stops Rust protective enamel (7798-830) | Paint - Spray Can and Touch Up | AutoZone.com

that is what i used.


as far as the bumper. yes im planning to wrap it with vinyl wrap made for car wraps.(semi-gloss look) reason is i think it would be easier to do rather than trying to sand the big chrome bumper then using etching primer to make sure the paint sticks to it. Plus with all the masking you need to do...bleh pain in the butt imo. cost wise it will be almost the same. albeit the wrap will cost just a few dollars more. two advantages in doing this wrap.

1. its thick enough to stop the everyday rocks/chips you will encounter. Compared to if you painted it. couple months down the road you will have little pits showing chrome/primer from all those rock chips.

2. you ever get tired of the monochrome look. you can always take it off and have your chrome bumper back. OR...if you decide to paint your EX..you can easily match the vinyl color to whatever color you painted your EX.

 

I've had to clean up the thread a little bit. Let's keep it on topic and stop the implied name calling.

If it derails again, I'll have to lock the thread guys.

Stewart

 

your are the man! thought this was going to turn into a flame war. was already looking for my flame retardant g-string

 

I don't know if you noticed but my bumper has a dent that im not even gonna try and bump out. Im painting the rest of the grille tomorrow and I was thinking of sanding the area down along with the whole bumper using bondo and fiberglass to shape it, then paint it with that paint. Im not gonna be getting any funds for a new bumper anytime soon so It's either that or ride around with this dent. It's like being a freshman with a pimple at a school dance. Not cool.
What do you think of bondo on chrome?

 

i seen it done. i myself has a dent on my bumper. and no funds for a new one.

bondo would work. just prep it real good. sand it down to bare metal and just repair as it were a body panel

 

Im going for it. Im also taking that plastic piece that wraps around the bumper off too. Been wanting to paint that blue strip on the sides to match the running board. While Im at it Im gonna do the gas cap semi gloss black too. I wanna set everything up for some same color fender flairs for the lift kit. I saw an f250 today lifted with the flairs and it blew me away. Question, Did you paint your top end or did you get it that way? Have you considered it with that semi? I wish we didn't have the same blue paint job. These 2 are gonna start looking very similar soon.

 

i bought it painted already, with ths much realestate paint will get pricey lol...not in my budget..lol at least we live in opposite ends of the us haha .

 

I'll be posting pics of the project tomorrow if the rain stays away. I'll keep ya posted. Gotta be up in 3 hours. .. Goodnight FTE

 

Got my bondo and paint already. Im testing a few different experiments to see if bondo sticks to chrome. Im using my barber chair to test because i know foe sure it's got chrome arm rests. My first test is a little surface sanding, soup and water wash, let dry then apply bondo. I let that sit and dry.

On the left arm rest I sanded the surface, washed, sprayed primer, let dry for 30 min then applied a blob of bondo.

Both samples are drying up and Im gonna see if I can pull off using bondo on chrome bumper.

 

Here is my lights I installed.
These are LED's. The mirrors are the stock lights that I hooked up to an LED flasher. I used relays so the parking lights and turn signals work as normal in the mirrors when the lights are not on.
LED stobes on Ford Excursion - YouTube

Here are my 90 watt hide a way strobes
Hide a way strobes on a Ford Excursion - YouTube

 

Here is another

LED strobes on Ford Excursion - YouTube

And one more with my plow on

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8jtHPU8vfE

 

Thats cool man. You done really good., I have a few questions...

How did you use the relays?
Can I hook up my tail and headlights to the control box and how?

 

Are you using halogen strobes on your tail lights? I ask because I had a set of Whelen 90s in the "third reflector" (top) of my tail lights. I ran them for about 30 minutes or so this past summer while helping deploy a DART boat. It was about 100 out that day. I noticed when I got home the outer shell of the tail light was bowed in at that third (top) reflector.

If you run those for any length of time when it is hot out, they can melt your tail light housings. I dont know how the fire service kept theirs from melting before they converted to LED (maybe drilled holes for ventilation at the top of the reflector inside the housing?), but if you run them in the summer, be aware.

To solve my issue I swapped the halogens in the rear for the Vertex LED models. They ended up being brighter than the 90 watt halogen strobes.

Loving the mirrors! That video alone is making me seriously consider a swap (I dont have the signal mirrors). Can you post a diagram of how you wired the relays?

Is the third brake from a F150?