I had a request to repost this here, so here it goes. And before anyone says it, yes I know you can just get the 06 valence and be done with it, but I did this for less than $10 and it took me only a few hours. I also did this in 05 for the first time on my stock valence, so 06 valences weren't readily available then.
Here is the best current closeup I have right now to show how it's holding up.
And here is a comparison of the stock valence I did about a year before this one. You can see it suffered a few scratches to the black paint, but it held up well around it, no flaking, and would be easy to touch up.
my reasoning for doing this is as you all know some idiot at gm decided to make the top pad on the bumpers black, but all the valances gray(WHY!?!?!?!) so i thought it would be a much cleaner look to have them both black
before
first off you must get the air dam off, its just a lot of stupid plastic clips, not hard to figure out, but it is a pain
next you must get the air dam CLEAN!!! many people have soaked these things with shine products such as armor-all over the years, and the paint doesn't like this, so use a heavy duty degreaser and scrub these things clean, make sure there is no oily residue left, i used full strength purple power in a 5 gallon bucket, and a red scotch brite pad for this
next up i scuffed it up with a fine grit sandpaper to help the paint adhere, then washed it one more time with the degreaser, then let it dry for a few hours. Don't use to aggressive of sandpaper or you will have scratches in your final product, I think I used 400 or so.
here is what i used-duplicolor adhesion promoter(recommended on the other can, like a clear primer) and duplicolor bumper coating-black
the adhesion promoter will spray on invisible and leave a matte finish, do about 2-3 light coats of this, then apply the black bumper coat
here it is after only one coat
i applied 3 coats
one can will do the entire bumper, though if i had another can i would have done one more coat, and maybe will some other time as there was a gash in the valance when i purchased it that i want to fill in, but for now its not very noticeable
and here's the finished product
the finish is surprisingly durable and flexible when cured, and can be shined up with dressing just like any other black trim, as it retains the stock grainy texture, i did this to the faded flares on my old jeep and it lasted years and still looked great when i sold it, and it was resistant to tree limbs and rocks when offroading.
and here is a comparison to the gray air dam on my moms tahoe to mine
Here is the best current closeup I have right now to show how it's holding up.
And here is a comparison of the stock valence I did about a year before this one. You can see it suffered a few scratches to the black paint, but it held up well around it, no flaking, and would be easy to touch up.
