Repaired and Repainted My '72 Grille
When I bought my Dart a little over a year ago, it had a very good condition grille. The plastic itself was in great shape....Until a couple of friends were doing stupid stuff near my car, like ramming one who was sitting on the floor jack into my car. His elbow went RIGHT into that grille and it was no longer perfect. Yelling ensued.
I had mechanical issues to deal with so the cosmetics were put off until now, where it's a fairly reliable daily driver. Drove it around with the grille looking like this for almost a year:
The black was peeling bad now, with a layer of grime over the already faded paint and not mention that 2" gap!
I finally had enough and removed the grille, which was easier that I though it'd be. Well, easier because some of the brackets behind it were already broken off. O:) Not so perfect!
I used JB Plastic Weld, two-part epoxy for the job. I know a lot of recommendations say use broken parts of a grille and acetone, but I didn't have anything like that laying around. I had saved about 1" of the grille I found on the floor all the this time because it did fit perfectly into one end of the broken part, so that wasn't going to be used as melting fodder. Glued that on and liked how sturdy the bond was. Then came the task of filling that 1" gap.....
I used blue masking tape to kind of make a "pool" area for the weld material. I then filled up that area with the epoxy and let it dry. Peeled away most of the tape and sanded the crap out of the dried epoxy after letting it sit for a couple days. I did not get the most perfect of shapes, but it looks and feels mostly like the rest of the lines until you really put your nose in front of it.
To paint, I used DupliColor's Perfect Match Bright Silver Metallic from their Chrysler colors, Krylon Plastic Paint Satin Black, and then Krylon Plastic Clear Coat in Gloss. I really liked how the DupliColor came out on both the grille and the turn signal bezels, almost matches my Rallye wheels exactly. And of course I could not be happier how cleaner the front end looks now, it really changed the look of the car. No more faded, peeling paint and best of all, no missing tooth! This was my first time doing plastic repair so I like my results. I wish I had more of my pictures during the process but my phone fell out of my pocket while painting outside and the glass cracked so bad I can't unlock it now. :oops:
The aftermath, from my time and about $5 for the Plastic Weld, $35 for the numerous cans of paint:
I know lots of posts are out there about fixing grilles, but just wanted to share mine and recommend JB Plastic Weld. Cheap and smelly, but it worked very well to even bridging a pretty significant gap. Sanded very well to get the shape I wanted. The pictures don't do the difference justice; it looks SO much better, even in direct sunlight where previously the grille would show the nasty grime and faded black. Now it is shiny and looks new again!
When I bought my Dart a little over a year ago, it had a very good condition grille. The plastic itself was in great shape....Until a couple of friends were doing stupid stuff near my car, like ramming one who was sitting on the floor jack into my car. His elbow went RIGHT into that grille and it was no longer perfect. Yelling ensued.
I had mechanical issues to deal with so the cosmetics were put off until now, where it's a fairly reliable daily driver. Drove it around with the grille looking like this for almost a year:
The black was peeling bad now, with a layer of grime over the already faded paint and not mention that 2" gap!
I finally had enough and removed the grille, which was easier that I though it'd be. Well, easier because some of the brackets behind it were already broken off. O:) Not so perfect!
I used JB Plastic Weld, two-part epoxy for the job. I know a lot of recommendations say use broken parts of a grille and acetone, but I didn't have anything like that laying around. I had saved about 1" of the grille I found on the floor all the this time because it did fit perfectly into one end of the broken part, so that wasn't going to be used as melting fodder. Glued that on and liked how sturdy the bond was. Then came the task of filling that 1" gap.....
I used blue masking tape to kind of make a "pool" area for the weld material. I then filled up that area with the epoxy and let it dry. Peeled away most of the tape and sanded the crap out of the dried epoxy after letting it sit for a couple days. I did not get the most perfect of shapes, but it looks and feels mostly like the rest of the lines until you really put your nose in front of it.
To paint, I used DupliColor's Perfect Match Bright Silver Metallic from their Chrysler colors, Krylon Plastic Paint Satin Black, and then Krylon Plastic Clear Coat in Gloss. I really liked how the DupliColor came out on both the grille and the turn signal bezels, almost matches my Rallye wheels exactly. And of course I could not be happier how cleaner the front end looks now, it really changed the look of the car. No more faded, peeling paint and best of all, no missing tooth! This was my first time doing plastic repair so I like my results. I wish I had more of my pictures during the process but my phone fell out of my pocket while painting outside and the glass cracked so bad I can't unlock it now. :oops:
The aftermath, from my time and about $5 for the Plastic Weld, $35 for the numerous cans of paint:
I know lots of posts are out there about fixing grilles, but just wanted to share mine and recommend JB Plastic Weld. Cheap and smelly, but it worked very well to even bridging a pretty significant gap. Sanded very well to get the shape I wanted. The pictures don't do the difference justice; it looks SO much better, even in direct sunlight where previously the grille would show the nasty grime and faded black. Now it is shiny and looks new again!