I was wondering if anyone has had an issue like this. I’m scotchbriting all the chrome to give it a satin finish. The left drivers side vent turned out great so I moved on to the passenger side. Now I never noticed this before but it seems like all the chrome on the inside of the piece is gone. I’m not sure it it came off or if it was never there but it’s just black plastic. I scuffed it up a bit with a gray scotchbrite to see if maybe something turned it black but there’s no chrome there. I went and checked the rest of the vents and the vent on the left side of the center stack is the same way. It’s still shiny so it’s hard to notice if you don’t look for it but there’s definitely no chrome.

 

My vents are the same as your's in my '18. A thin strip or line of chrome and shiny black on the inner side of vent closest to the vent louvers.

I like the idea of using the scotch brite pad to tone the shine down, at times on sunny days the reflection from the chrome is annoying to my old eyes.

 

So all 4 of yours are like that? Mine, only 2 are like that. The other 2 are fully chrome.

 

I wonder if they did that because of glare. I remember some guys complaining about glare from the chrome trim.

 

I don’t think this is intentional. I have a 2017. And on mine, only the passenger side near the door and the left side center stack one are like this. The other 2 are all chrome. I ordered a new replacement for the passenger side one and it’s all chrome

 

I was actually wrong. I just checked the new vent I just received and its the same thing. Gloss black with a chrome sliver on the front. That means my truck had 2 all chrome ones, drivers left and passenger left, and 2 black with chrome, drivers right and passenger right. I had ordered a drivers side left a while ago so I can experiment on and I just noticed that its different as well. Its all chrome but there isnt a slight bevel on it like the original one. All the original ones have that bevel. Is anyone elses like this?