'69 B'Cuda grills

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lemonboy69

It's JUST a Slant Six...
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Well, I finally broke down and decided it was time to pull the grills off the car to restore them. Trust me, they need it and I'm sure not dropping almost $1000 on ebay for a pair.

My gray plastic inner surround has lots of cracks and is in several pieces in some areas. I have everything apart (drilled out the rivets holding the aluminum accent piece in) and I'm looking to glue it all together and paint it black (Formula S simulation). What type of glue or bond do you guys suggest? :dontknow:

I need to get the chrome surrounds redone ($$) as they're really pitted. I thankfully scored a very nice pair of turn signal lenses and chrome, so that looks good there.

I'm also fabricating up a custom mesh insert for it. I pulled the factory one out and traced it out on some stretched steel (pics coming). My buddy then used my angle grinder and cut it out. Still have some trimming to do to get it to fit right, but hopefully this will give it a 'custom' look to go with the refurbished surround.

Let me know your thoughts on this guys... it's going to be a lot of work! :silent: :drinkers:
 
I used a 2 part epoxy to fix mine. I roughed up the back side so it would stick better then you can use some filler on the other side to hide the cracks.
 
Thanks Adam! What brands of things did you use? I want this repair to last and look good... slowly but surely I'm getting around to things that I passed up during the resto! :)
 
I dont remember what brand the epoxy was. I got it at advance auto. It was for plastic. Fiberglass filler may work also.
 
Perfect! Thanks man! :thumblef: I'll go look at some 2 part epoxy's tonight and let you guys know what I find. I'll have to get some pics up tonight of what I've gotten done so far!
 
hey man decided to make em black eh? good choice :thumblef: that will look awesome on your cuda, make sure u get them pics i wanna see the ending results :) also i agree i need a new grill for my cuda but there is no way i'm droping 1k into a grill, hell adam didnt you sell a grill set that was cracked for over $500 :silent: :cwm10: wow!
 
Thanks for the tip 69fastback!

Don't worry Jack, you'll get pics! I've taken some pics already and just haven't had a chance to get them up yet, been too damn busy working!

I bought some JB Quick (JB Weld designed for plastics), so I'll let you guys know how that fairs out... hoping to get one of the surrounds glued together tomorrow night. Then hoping to at least get 1 painted over the weekend, and maybe get the 2nd one glued together depending on time. I'm thinking I'm just going to shoot these with a primer, then flat black.

AdamR - were yours flat black? They look like it... :thumblef:
 
Thanks Adam. Where'd you get it at? I was thinking of going with an automotive flat black... something that's made to take wind, bugs and getting cleaned! :)
 
my whole grill piece that surronds the light(on the outer side of the car) is all gone :cwm10: could i make a custom piece with that mixing stuff
 
lemonboy69 said:
Thanks Adam. Where'd you get it at? I was thinking of going with an automotive flat black... something that's made to take wind, bugs and getting cleaned! :)
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I got it from a friends body shop. Any auto body supply store should have it. Eastwood also sells it. Its my favorite spray can black. Not flat, not glossy, just right.
 
Finally got around to starting on the surrounds last night. I ended up buying a couple packages of JB Quick (JQ Weld for plastics basically). So far from working with it last night, it seems like this is going to work quite well. I haven't tried bonding the sections together yet, but just one corner where the outter lip was broken from the rest of the piece. (Pics tonight to help it make sense!)

I'm hoping to get at least one grill done, maybe start on the 2nd this weekend!

Stay tuned!! :thumblef:
 
$1000 for grilles? I saw a '68 GT/GTS trim panel that was re-done (VERY nice) on e-Bait a few months back...it was over $1300 last glance at it :silent: . I remember when A-bodies were the cheap, unloved Mopars (yet the most durable)- don't know how many times my Dart was called a 'Fart.'
 
6t8 Dart said:
$1000 for grilles? I saw a '68 GT/GTS trim panel that was re-done (VERY nice) on e-Bait a few months back...it was over $1300 last glance at it :silent: . I remember when A-bodies were the cheap, unloved Mopars (yet the most durable)- don't know how many times my Dart was called a 'Fart.'
Click to expand...
i know its crazy :cwm10:
 
I think so. The custom messing I'm putting in is going to be black, along with the surround.

I'm hoping I can get the aluminum accent piece to clean up and shine nicely! I drilled the rivets out of the aluminum piece to get it off the surround. Wait until you guys see what I've come up with to reattach that... LOL!
 
PICS!!! Just a few of what I've been fixing so far. Trying to take my time and make it look good. Like I posted earlier, I'm using JB Quik to "weld" it back together. Seems to be holding up quite well so far. I'm going to use a steel brush to try and get the excess off and to rough up the plastice before painting. Enjoy the the pics... there will be more!!

There are a few more pics on my site - http://mikescuda.net -> Pictures -> 'Cuda Progress -> '69 Blue 'Cuda

grill_repair_002.jpg

grill_repair_006.jpg

grill_repair_008.jpg

grill_repair_000.jpg
 
Seeing as how it's coming up on a month working on this project, I figured I should update everybody. One side is completely done, and if I hadn't scrated the messing trying to put it together today, it'd be in already... ARGH!

Looks like I need to get some update pics of the grill up too... the one looks very cool!!

So, while the touch-up paint was drying, I ripped the other one apart and cleaned it up. Hoping to have it glued and painted by the end of the week so I can slap it together in time for my big show on Sunday.

You think you've got everything going right when another problem surfaces. As if I don't have enough things to get ready for the show, one of my hood hinges bent. So, I gotta head down to my storage area where my '67 Fastback is, rip those hinges off the car, bring them home, blast them, primer them, take them up to Wisconsin for my body guy to paint, and then get them on the car with the hood before Sunday. All the while I work 60 hour weeks... UGGGH... welcome to car show season!! :D :D :D
 
Well, 4 days of busting my ***, and she's actually ready for the show. The 2nd grill is done and in, and man, do these look HOTT!!! Got my new stainless polished overflow tank in, the hood hinges off the '67 are in, and if I had another couple hours, I'd put my new aluminum master cylinder in too... ahh, always room for improvement!!

Speaking of, this show marks the 1 year anniversary of the debut of the car... this time last year, I didn't even have windows in the car and I won 2nd place in A-body Modified... :D :D :D Another trophey this year maybe?? ;)

Pics at the end of the day tomorrow... or maybe tonight, we'll see!
 
Man, those are coming out really nice!! :thumblef:
I have some that are cracked on the curved area before the inserts. Visible from the front. :sad2:
I was thinking of using a heat gun to destress the plastic some and make it align better before trying to fix it. Any advice?

thanks

Dave
 
Dave, if you can take some pics of what you've got, I might be able to offer some advise! :thumblef:

I really wasn't sure how to tackle mine because one surround was in 4 pieces plus the major crack on the one end, and the other was only in 2 pieces thankfully. I completely disassembled them (drilled the rivets out of the aluminum accent piece too!) and then took things from there. If you're intersted in restoring/modifying your grills to bring them up closer to a show quality, let me know and I can walk you through what I did and show you everything I used.... not too difficult, just time consuming!

I'll get some good pics of them up, and let you guys give me your opinions of how they turned out! :)
 
i myself would use satin black. I like the brand aervoe rust paint #344 satin black. it looks very clean and sterile. at art stores there is a plastic glue called zap-a-gap and comes in about 5 formulas.
 
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