Yes, that very complex balck plastoc piece that sits between the windshield and hood and under the wipers, my car is 10 years old and this thing is faded and an ugly faded grey, so it seems like it would be very easy to take it off and paint/ clearcaot.

I have been searching for 20 minutes and so far have only learned that I need to buy a wiper puller from autozone like this one

http://www.otctools.com/products/win...d_wiper_puller

simple enough but other than that will there be any other difficultly in taking this piece off?

the spray nozzles and air vents should just pull off right?

hopefully I wont have to take the hood off to do this but I might end up doing so.

I just plan on lightly brushing the dirt and crap off the piece with a wire brush and painting/ clearing it to maintain the texture, it would be nice but way too much work to sand it down and smooth it out. While i'm at it I'm also going to replace the spray nozzles since the right one is clogged some how.

Has anyone ever done this before?

 

I've seen it in person. Looks like crap. Looks fine from 15 feet away and then you walk up close to the car and say to yourself "ew they painted that." You really say that the first moment you notice a chip in the paint.

If you use enough tire shine spray, the plastic will soak it up and return to a nice dark color. I like STP Son of a Gun tire stuff because you can buy it at the dollar store in giant spray cans and it doesn't leave a ton of residue. Works like a charm. Works great on the LT1 air intake elbow and the kick panels on the door sill too.

If you want to use something a bit more specialized, there's a product called Back to Black, but I've never used it--only heard good things about it. As cheap as the STP stuff is, I just use it.

 

no, I've been putting tire crap and back to black on it since i've had the car, it's a PIA, it takes alot of time, you cant get it on the whole thing, it gets all over the windshield and it only lasts a few days and it looks like crap again, I'm going to paint it black or yellow to match my car and paint the wiper arms while I'm at it, I also have a windshield sprayer nozzle not workign right so I will replace too.

I will use high temp black paint and clear so it should hold up to the heat.

My only concern is the difficutly of removing the trim and re-installing it. It's looks to be really simple but you never know for sure. Has anyone done this before?

 

Well, whatever you do, don't use gloss black or anything. It looked awful on the car I saw it on. I checked my pics and unfortunately I didn't take a closeup of that.

 

why did it look bad? Gloss black should make it look like it has tire crap on it right?

 

The tire stuff you use must be glossier than what I use. What I use just turns everything dark again after I let it absorb and wipe it off.

On the Camaro I saw that had the trim painted black, it accentuated the bumpy texture and looked gross.

Here's a some pics of my GXP's engine. I just did the engine cover and everything with the STP tire crap just a week or so ago. It didn't make it glossy really. These two pics are from just after I did it and got done wiping the foam off with a paper towel. I didn't do the tire crap on the plastic where the hood hinge comes down, so that's what the engine cover and stuff looked like before I used it.



And here's a high res pic from last weekend. While washing the car, I went ahead and hosed the entire engine off and dried it, so it doesn't have any of the tire crap left on it. It's hard to tell in the photo, but the engine cover, air filter housing, etc. look a lot better than the hinge area I didn't do.
Click here for high res: http://i985.photobucket.com/albums/a...P/IMG_4070.jpg


Wish I took pics of the painted windshield wiper trim I saw, but unfortunately I didn't. I'd wait to hear what others have to say before you do it. I personally think you'd regret it. I'd probably try black plastic dye before trying paint.

 

I already ordered the spray nozzle and got the wiper tool, everyone has until next weekend to talk me out of it.

 

x2 on no paint. If you have your heart set on it I would buy a second either off a part-out car or ebay and then experiment with the worse of the two. That way if you aren't happy with the results you have to put on right away and aren't scrambling to find one to put the car back together.

 

I agree with Brangeta. We use tire gel and ours is not shiny but stays nice and black. Just put it on and let it soak in and wipe it down. We only do it a couple times a year and we show our car.

 

Primered and sprayed mine gloss black 10 yrs ago. It's just now starting to fade as my car has been outside in the FL heat for the last yr. Will strip it all down and do it over again this fall. If it's done right it won't look like crap like others have said. Looked better than new and EVERYONE wanted to know where I got my parts from because it looked that good. Only pic I have of it is here and not the best but you get an idea of it. The only other real option is here...http://www.emblempros.com/hydrocoating

 

well I did it, was easy enough to take off, I used high temp paint which wasn't the best choice I guess, it it seems to scratch off easily, I should have used Kryon Fusion for plastic or atleast primered it first. It should be okay for a few years, if it starts looking like crap again I'll redo it. The main reason it looked like crap was because it had oxidation, dirt and wax on it, just a good scrubing made it look much better.

 

update 2 weeks later, the paint dried and hardened, it actually turned out pretty good and the paint is holding up well and seems to stick good now.