Painted Onstar and XM Antennas

SS Crew · February 5, 2005

Has anyone out there in GM-Truck.com land painted their OnStar or XM antennas? I've got a Q-steer and with the stupid Farmer John lights on top and the 2 other antennas on top, it looks kind of crowded. I was wondering if painting those antennas would cut down or hurt reception. Anyone?

BBSilverado · February 5, 2005

Has anyone out there in GM-Truck.com land painted their OnStar or XM antennas? I've got a Q-steer and with the stupid Farmer John lights on top and the 2 other antennas on top, it looks kind of crowded. I was wondering if painting those antennas would cut down or hurt reception. Anyone?

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I can'y say for sure that painting them will hurt the reception, but I do know that window tinting will hurt the GPS antenna's reception. knowing that, it might be possible that paint may hurt the XM and Onstar reception.

On the other hand, I have seen aftermarket sellers offering a plastic chrome plated cover for the XM and Onstar antennas but they don't mention if it hurts the reception at all.

lrymal · February 5, 2005

Has anyone out there in GM-Truck.com land painted their OnStar or XM antennas?
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You can't, at least according to the manual.

GM-Tech · February 5, 2005

We've received warnings in service about not painting the XM antenna. Nothing like that about the OnStar GPS antenna that I can recall. I don't see how a layer of paint would hurt, but...

lrymal · February 6, 2005

We've received warnings in service about not painting the XM antenna. Nothing like that about the OnStar GPS antenna that I can recall. I don't see how a layer of paint would hurt, but...

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Well, ok. From GOOGLE search with these keywords:

"xm antenna" paint

Found this message thread at XM Fan. Basically, non-metalic based paint is fine.

http://www.xmfan.com/viewtopic.php?t=23400

GM took the safe way out and sez to not use ANY paint and I don't blame GM, either. Anyway, look the thread over, dig around in the other links, make a decision.

SS Crew · February 6, 2005

Thanks for the info. My truck is white so that might work since it's a nonmetallic paint. It looks like the top of the XM antenna snaps on and off, so if paint did hurt reception I should be able to snap another cap on the antenna. As far as the OnStar antenna, I should be able to paint the base without any reception problems. Wish me luck.

lrymal · February 6, 2005

...Wish me luck.

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Just mask the area off. You will NOT be able to merely pop the top off the XM antenna. Ain't built that way. All or nothing unit.

SS Crew · February 6, 2005

...Wish me luck.

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Just mask the area off. You will NOT be able to merely pop the top off the XM antenna. Ain't built that way. All or nothing unit.

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Oh sh*t - thanks for letting me know that. I probably would have figured that out after spending an hour trying to remove that antenna without any luck.