Grills - but not the Bar B Q kind

Glad I could help.

Don't worry about the toothpicks scratching the chrome either. The flat paint wash comes off easily and the wood doesn't scratch... well unless you rub really, really hard for a long time LOL.

Thanks for your tips.  I'll give them a try.  especially the tip on using a toothpick to pick off the raised letters/names on the grills.  This is the part giving me the most grief.

 

 

What I do is pretty easy actually.

• First wash parts with warm water and dish detergent as normal.
• I then wash everything down with Isopropyl Alcohol, for the grill - try using a damp Q-Tip (any cotton swab).
• I work with enamels, mostly Testors and some MM. I have a Testors 1/4oz. bottle of flat black that I added a "few" drops of paint thinner/mineral spirits too so it's just a little more runny than normal.
• Apply a "light coat" of the thinned flat black over the grill.
• Set the part to dry so the painted surface is facing up. That way most of the paint will flow to the deep spots and leave most of the chrome edges somewhat clean for the next step.
  
• When dry (within minutes) I clean up the raised edges that are supposed to remain chrome. I usually use flat toothpicks, or those craft sticks cut down (popsicle sticks), and just gently slide them across the high spots.

I've tried semi-gloss and gloss, but those don't look too good to me on the grills.
  
I do the same thing for rims and any other chrome parts that need some blackout work done to them. Some rims look pretty good if you use the semi-gloss, especially if you want to match the car color. 

Hope that helps get you started.