I do a good amount of driving on gravel and dirt back-roads.This summer I noticed that my radiator was taking rocks/sticks and what have you. My old grill was a honeycomb, and this debris was just passing right through the holes and lodging in my radiator teeth making dents and doing damage.

I bought this billet grille insert to try and stop some of this junk from passing through, with the original plan of painting the thing black. Thing is, everybody told me they really liked it, and then it started to grow on me. Now several months later, I've got the winter-time blues and I'm thinking of painting it flat black like I had planned. SO what do ya'll think, should I paint it or not???

 

Instead of painting it black, I think it would look cool to get the black part around it to be chrome also. It does look good the way it is. If you do paint it black, look into the black chrome, that would be awesome also.

 

Hey man, thanks for the response! I'm kinda on a budget so my options are either spray bomb it black or just leave it the way it is. Black chrome would be sweet though. I think I'll keep it, 'cause everyone I've asked says to leave it chrome. Thing is, I'm running out of projects to do for my truck. I'm kinda just looking for an excuse to something new, even though it doesn't need it haha! Maybe some 2006 mirrors will be next

 

It matches the chrome bumper and grill surround. It looks right at home to me.

 

Looks good to me as-is.

 

K, i'll keep it for sure then! It does match nicely,and I think I would have a hard time matching spray on black paint to the rest of the black on my grill. Its made by Smittybilt, so its not like an ebay blue light special or anything. Its kinda like the newer Ranger chromed out grills, without all the plastic.

 

Thanks! it also came with some inserts to go into those little pockets to the side, but I felt that was too much chromage lol

 

Id paint the grille insert white and keep the billet grille

 

Not sure how it would look, but a neat idea.

 

i think it would look sweet black, but only if you had other black stuff, like wheels, a tool box, or something black on your hood

 

I think that it looks pretty nice as-is, it looks cool and matches the rest of your chrome.

 

I have ion 174 that are black with a silver lip. My rocker panels are also Bedlined black, so I do have black accents on my truck. Maybe I'll plastidip it then I can peel it off if I don't like it.

 

It would take forever to get Plasti Dip off of all those grille slats.