This is not rocket science but to come up with a pro look, you need to follow some basic guidelines. Many people have color keyed the bezels and grill as well to the body color and I have no problem with that. If you do want to keep the bezels matching the grill and the grill to look more original style, here is your procedure:
Scuff the bezels with scotch bright or fine sand paper to get off bugs, dirt and other stuff, wipe them down with a wax & grease remover solvent. I am painting up a new set of bezels for the rectangular headlights but you also use the same procedure for original bezels.
If the bezels are cracked or broken, call me and I may have one that’s better than yours. It really makes a difference to have good pieces to work with. If they look too nasty, you may want to install the new rectangular headlight kit. The bezels come white gel coat and really paint up nice, especially if you are repainting or updating the exterior look (Sara has color keyed the bezels to the body but you get the idea).
The prepped bezels are then sprayed with a dull aluminum color lacquer stray paint you want a satin to flat finish to match the original grill (BTW, new original style grills pre painted are available for $200 plus shipping, you can’t pay someone to repair your old one that cheap and it is a perfect grill and that is a good thing! I spray 3 coats giving each 5-10 min. to tack up. Set the silver painted bezels aside for a hour or so (in the sun if you have it) to allow the silver to dry well.
For the next step you will need “1/2 in. blue fineline” mask tape. It is a bendable vinyl mask tape that also make a good finished edge. Tape off the center of the bezel covering the silver paint. This will cover the silver and now allow you to shoot the black. Check to be sure there are no sharp edges on your taping, it all needs to flow together. Now, shake the SEM brand “trim black” paint 100 times as you needed to do on the dull aluminum, this will help make sure there are no thin areas or splotches. This is a self etching laquer paint (really good stuff). You should be able to find it at most any automotive paint supply house. If you do not use this stuff, it will not come out nice!
Spray light coats (3) letting each dry for 5-10 min. Wait @ 30 min. after the last coat then carefully pull the fineline tape. Lay the bezels in the sun, this will allow the black paint edges to “flow” a bit giving you a nice smooth edge to the black.
Vwa-la, let them sit around a couple of hours to dry well and put’em on. I like the look of the new original painted grill with the black & silver
painted bezels, looks finished to me. That’s not to say the color keyed approach is not nice too but this is also a good look. Good luck and hope this helps.