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Black bits in grills - plastic or painted finish?

mblatz

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Hi! I've seen plenty of photos online of the various grills, but it's really hard to tell - are the black bits (whatever is not chrome or body color) on the various grills painted black or just black plastic? On the XL it's surely just black plastic, but I wonder about the other models.

Specifically I have ordered an XLT Sport. A lot of black on the grill - I hope it is a nicer finish than the "base model" look of black plastic. When the truck is new, the black plastic looks fine actually, but a few years down the road it inevitably ages poorly and turns gray. A painted black finish would look nicer longer, hoping that's what the XLT Sport grill is.
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KBKEITH

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On the XLT Sport, the 14 tiny slats are black and the surround areas are like a gunmetal.
Not sure if the black areas are actually painted or not. Kind of hard for me to tell.
 

Knickell

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I absolutely hate how much of the black plastic car companies use on vehicles these days. It fades to grayish white after being beat up by the sun and looks like complete crap unless you meticulously take care of it (which most people don’t)

Ford F-150 Black bits in grills - plastic or painted finish? 420B0B36-1013-412A-B322-9C4F358C53BE

This is an XLT Sport. The surrounds of the grille (oblong circle spanning the width of the grille around the Ford logo) and the main border looks like the will be coated in some sort of other finish, hopefully. I’m fairly certain all the remaining inserts are the same cheap plastic you and I don’t like.

I can confirm the black portion beneath the grille where the front license plate bracket is located is also that cheap plastic.

And if I remember correctly, the black strip connecting the front fascia to the bumper is a rubber strip of some sort, at least on the Limited models I’ve seen.
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