HOW I PAINTED MY PAD?...Order up the plastic clips from Mopar...you will need 19, but they come in bags of 10...so get two bags...order them ahead of time from Chuck Tator (914-763-3136)...You will break most of your old clips removing the pad...For all of the spray paints, I used engine block spray paint, but any high temp oil based spray paint will work...
1. With the pad off...give her a once over with SEMI-gloss black...just enough to get the pad uniformly black, doesn't take much...may not be necassary if your car is new, but if the pad is showing white spots from the car wash, this is an easy trick to make the pad look new!
2. With masking tape and an exacto (razor) knife, mask off the whole outside edge of the emblem...and the rest of the hood pad, so that all you can see is the emblem...
3. Apply four coats of primer, allow two hours drying time in between coats...Allow to dry 24 hrs.
4. Mask off the Low portions of the emblem, apply however many coats looks good, at least three...two hours between each coat.
5. Allow to dry 24 hrs after last coat before removing masking tape.
6. Mask off the High portions of the emblem, apply however many coats looks good, at least three...two hours between each coat.
7. Allow to dry 24 hrs after last coat before removing masking tape.
8. Now your emblem is painted, but the hood pad is still masked...APPLY three to four coats of clear or as many as you want...how shiny do ya want it?! Allow to dry for 24 - 36 hours...
9. Peal the remaining mask.
10. I then took a brand new black Sharpie, and went around the lines inside the emblem, to kind of separate things...but be careful...you cannot see this unless you get right up on the emblem, but it makes for a nice effect...could you see this in my pic? People only notice if I tell them...optical illusion, but really adds depth...and covers any minor, and I mean minor, masking errors...you can always touch areas up by spraying into a cup and using a tiny brush...
11. Re-install pad!
12. Masking is the key, use the 3M blue masking tape (Home Depot), and use real short pieces overlapped to get around the curves, and use the razor knife to make them perfect...
13. PATIENCE, PATIENCE, PATIENCE...especially in masking...and take your time with the coats of paint, you can alway spray another coat if the one you just laid didn't cover...so no need to lay any one coat on too thick...
14. POST PICS WHEN YOU ARE DONE!
