I just painted the faux grille on the rear bumper silver, as shown in the attached. I recall reading where someone had spent several hours painting theirs by hand. I was looking for a quick way, and while mine is not perfect, I think it looks good from 5 or more feet away, and only took about 20 minutes.

I used an enamel paint, and the flat end of a wooden paint stirrer (the kind they give you when you buy a gallon of paint). I dipped the stirrer, and then removed most of the excess paint by brushing it on newspaper (almost dragging it along the paper at a 5-degree angle). I then dragged it across the faux mesh. I put on two coats. The size of the stirrer and the fact that most of the paint is removed from it keep the paint from getting into the holes. It took a little bit of practice to get into some of the corners, and I may have to go back to these areas with a Q-tip, but over all I am happy with it.

 

it looks a little scratchy...you " will " have to go over it again...

 

I thought about doing something like this (IF) I changed the rear bumber but I thought of cutting out the plastic grill and replaceing it with the wire grill I intend to use as my oil cooler grills/protectors.

 

Wow, what happened to your license plate?

 

Too much paint thinner when removing the splattered grille-paint :D

 

Oh, of course. Why didn't I think of that?

 

Actually, there was no splatter, and no need for mineral spirits. I kept just a thin coat of paint on the stick. While I admit, my paint job was not perfect, it looks good from 5 feet away and took only 20 minutes. I am thinking about covering the stick with a bicycle innnertube so it will be a little softer for the next coat. The hardness of the stick made it a bit more difficult to get the grille covered evenly the first time.

As far as the license plate....

 

Come on, I was just kidding

 

I know. Me too.

 

When I did mine on my old RX-8 (over a year ago)..it came out a lot cleaner. Must have been cause I spent a couple hours on it whereas you say you spent 20 minutes.



By the way my old one did not come with rotary accents. The accent you see in that pic was also hand painted by me. In fact when I traded my old RX-8 back in, the fools thought it had the accent package on it, and didn't even question the painted grille. I went back to the dealership a few weeks later, and my car was on their lot for sale, and it still had the painted grille.

 

That's the trade off. Less time, less perfection. I took the pictures from 2 or 3 feet away with a 6 MP camera, so you can see all the imperfections which are not evident a few more feet away. I'm not saying my way is better, but just wanted to post a faster option which other may try to tweak some more.

I'm not the greatest hand painter, nor would I normally I have the patience for doing it, so I'm not sure it would have turned out any better if I had done so. This was a good option for me. If I go back over it, I'll post new pics.

 

Check your local hardware store or paint center. They make tiny rollers for trim work; you might have better control with that using a fairly dry roller, and still be done quickly.

 

The grille looks nice, but pay some attention to the pipes:

https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-show-shine-26/exhaust-tip-polish-63325/

 

Thanks. Definitely need to polish them.

 

I painted using rustoleums alluminum paint on front and back bumper grilles using nothing but a 1.5 inch foam brush from walmart.... came out awsome thanks for sparking the Idea.

 

Maybe I'll touch mine up with a foam brush. Thanks for that idea.

 

Here are some pics of front rear and side grilles that i painted.
the side grilles were painted with krylon silver fusion plastics spray paint(3 lite coats) The front and back were done very carefully with foam brush(don't over saturate the brush with paint) couple coats. Make sure to have some mineral spirits and Q-tips handy for lite clean up.