Metalcast Grill / LED Tailgate Strip
Yes I did something crazy and painted the grill, but first, more gratuitous pics!
A bit of photoshop fun:
I never gave you guys a decent pic of the rhino liner, well here it is:
Now, on to the grill. Mine wasn't quite perfect, and I've been on a mission to de-chrome the truck for a while now, so I decided to experiment a bit when I saw the new Metalcast Smoke paint. In theory I hoped it would give a black chrome / smoked chrome look. In practice it's a bit different but I rather like it, unfortunately it is not holding up as well as I'd like long term and you can expect the truck to get a new grill after this winter is over.
Before/After (sorry about the weird light spots, camera was acting up):
Just after putting it back on:
When I was at the Carlisle All Truck Nationals this summer I picked up one of those LED tailgate strips from the Streetglow vendor booth. Upon going to install it I realized that in the process of being thorough the helpful folks at Rhino Linings of Maine had also sprayed the area you would normally stick the LED bar to. So, I decided to mount it a different way and snug it right up to the bottom of the tailgate. A few angle brackets, some nuts and bolts, and the correct sized drill bit and tap and I arrived at the solution you see here:
It came out very good, you can barely tell it's there during the day even if you're standing next to the truck (unless I hit the brakes or blinker of course). Here's a shot of it lit up:
