i need to get my front bumper respaed black so i was thinking to paint the head light buckets, grill, and louvers flat-black. the buckets are gloss right now and the gill and louvers are all sun beaten so they look semi gloss.

SHOUD I PAINT THE HEAD LIGHT BUCKETS FLAT (W/ THE GRILL AND LOUVERS) OR LEAVE THEM GLOSS????

GLOSS

 

Leave em'.

 

GLOSS: looks clean...
FLAT: gives it deffinition...

 

defenitly paint them when you paint your front bumper........since you have a black car make it the same color as your car. it would look a lot better. id spray your grill glossy too. i recently painted my grill gloss black with a couple clear coats and it looks 10x better

 

i need to see some pics of black cars with flat buckets...

 

alright i am going with flat...

my new question is:
IS THEIR A WAY TO HAVE GLOSS BLACK PAINT WITH NO SWIRLS???

i don't care what it takes... i will f-ucken do it. my paint has too many M_OTHER F_UCKING SWIRLS! can i wet sand it, if so what should i do to keep up on it, money and time are no object.

 

I say gloss, as I'm sure many others will, too. You won't like the flat after a while. It's even harder to keep flat black clean than the glossy.

And you will see in the post about the Tech Wax, your best bet is to polish the paint to get rid of swirls.

 

here's a pic of flat black..i thought it looked real nice considering i didn't sand or prep it at all...just sprayed it on cause i was tired of the whitish/blackish color the sun had bleached it to:

edit: i used duplicolor flat black made for plastic bumpers....no problem w/ the paint, the areas in the headlight pocket that were smooth turned out great..the only imperfections were because the surface was a little uneven

 

i like the falt on most other colors however i just think since the car is gloss black the flat headlight buckets would look out of place.

 

with a black car i personally believe it's preference however gloss any color is reference to an rs or aftermarket paint. if you want it to look "stock" no matter what color the flat black represents it much better.

as far as swirls....the only way to prevent them is to stop using abrasive products that produce them.

 

The original headlight pocket color is semi-gloss black, not gloss, not flat. (same with all other black trim except T-Tops moldings, which are gloss) Repaint them semi-gloss to get the stock look, which is shiny but not too much. It gives definition without looking dull. Most people with black cars don't repaint the pockets since the car is black anyway, but I like it when they do.

 

i like flat black,

 

Post pictures if you get it done.

 

ditto =)

oh and as for the swirls one word Zaino.

 

Took this picture at the Imperial in Las Vegas, ultra low miles IROC in the Palace car show room. Note headlight pockets seem to be gloss, really shine.

 

How low are the miles? I've seen low mileage cars with repainted bumpers. He might have shined them up too. But stock, they aren't gloss.