Road Runner Nest

Restoring My 71 Grille

Whats the secret , How do figure the factory did it??????????????????????

There were no Chinese factories back then ..

The factory had custom masks for painting.

You can carefully bead blast the old paint off. I'd stay away from chemical strippers.

Semi gloss black for the grill and argent surrounding the headlights and on the wide lip at base of the grille and bezels.

The factory left the black plastic unpainted (where you saw black) and only painted the argent.

That's why I said semi gloss or stain black for the body of the grille--if he has a silver Satellite grille to reproduce the bare plastic sheen would need to have a low gloss black... and then of course the argent.

I read somewhere (muscle car review maybe) that you could use oven cleaner to strip paint off grills without damaging the plastic. They said soak it down and put it in a garbage bag for a while. Has anyone tried this?

I used 320 grit sandpaper to clean my grill before painting. I would guess the oven cleaner could be used on a metal grill but I would not try it on my plastic grill until I put it on a part I didn't plan to use like a broken grill or headlight bezel to see the effects.

I wanted to share how I managed to restore my grill. First everything was cleaned with Easy-Off Original Oven Cleaner. I then repared any cracks and dents and sanded it all down with 320 sand paper. Certain super glues make an easy and fast plastic filler. I started this project with 2 full grills and chose the best parts from them so there was not a whole lot of repair work to do. I took one of the best original pieces to the parts store and found what think was the best match to the original argent paint. That would be Medium Platinum Metallic SEM Bumper Coater 39413. Also picked up a can of black. The SEM product has a nice fan nozzel on the arisol cans so the product goes on smooth and even. I just spray around the headlamp opening and the bottom lip with about 3 even coats of the argent. Let it dry for a day or more if you are not in a rush. Masking can be a bit of a chore, but if you want a good paint job, take your time and use good tape. I did both sides of the headlamp opening with 3M green tape and burnished the heck out of them. The bottom lip was Tamiya tape that you get at hobby shops for the paint edge and 3M for the rest. I used regular Bumper Coater Black for the rest of the grill. Gentally unmasked everything and there you go. I just test fit the parts so far, but I am happy with the end result. Probably the best part of my car right now.

I have to say that looks real good to me. on a great job.

I love SEM products. I'm reading up to do my 71 grille soon. Good timing for me with this read. LOL, yea, you got to get the original Easy-Off! The "safer" kind blows! I used it to strip primer off of a stolen-recovered car once. Haven't tried it on plastic. Been wanting to. Looks great. My local supply house sell SEMS, so guess I'll have to have a whirl at it. Awesome

Easy Off will definitely strip paint off of plastic, but it will also craze some plastics--at least it will craze styrene (model car plastic). Not sure if it will effect the type of plastic our grilles are made from.

How long did you leave the Easy Off on the grille? Did you put it in a plastic bag like the Muscle Car Review article states?

I just used some plastic polish and started rubbing and rubbing and the original black plastic came back. No need to paint the black.

wow havent been around for a while ..

Very Nice!