I'd like to pull the grille on my car and go through restoring it. That said, I have a few questions.
- What is your favorite trick for removing the silver paint from a grille? Chemical? Light blasting?
- Is the plastic textured, or does the grille get its texture from the paint?
- What are the paint codes, or similar codes, that could be used for both the silver and orange?
Removed it with generic lacquer thinner, did not waste DDL on it. Worked quickly with adequate recovery time
The plastic under the paint is smooth.
I used Totally Auto.
I had three issues with the original grille:
I had a rock hole in the middle upright about the size of a quarter. I backed it with fiberglass mesh tape and layered a mix of acetone and shavings from a donor grille until the hole was filled in and built up slightly higher than the surrounding plastic. I then sanded it smooth.
The other issues were the extensions that support the headlight bezel. Both had cracked and eventually broke entirely off. Backing it with metal and JB weld would work for a while but stress would renew the cracks,
I gave up and bought the new repop. I painted it with the leftover Totally Auto paint from the first rebuilds and put the original chrome rectangles back in. The replacement grille has the orange already on the grille so it had to be masked off to keep it orange.
I am not sure how accurate anything is now. This car has been a driver from when I got it in 1977.
Craig
