grill restoration

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justcuz

justcuz

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anyone have any luck repainting a grill like this?

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Yep, I just did one about a week ago. First I sanded my grille and bezels down with 800 grit sandpaper and afterwards washed everything very well with warm water and dish soap. Then I masked everything that was black off and painted it silver (used rallye wheel silver). After letting the silver dry for about 5 days, I taped all the new silver off and sprayed the rest of the grille black (used krylon fusion: satin black). Here a pic. of the end results, I still need to do the parking lamp lenses.

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I have a few little broken pieces on my grill, any ideas on a good technique to repair them? Do you just glue back together and if so regular filler?
 
I have a few little broken pieces on my grill, any ideas on a good technique to repair them? Do you just glue back together and if so regular filler?
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Describe the parts broken. If it is the mounting tabs, just gluing will probably be too weak. I repaired some broken tabs by adding some spring wire as reinforcement with Epoxy Steel Putty to bond it all together. That seems to be working OK. I even used that to make a completely missing tab.
 
Sem weld and some poly enamel arcylic paint. Some sand paper for the silver part and the silver grill spray paint from year one would fix that up like brand new, I dont have pics of mine, but i rebuilt a 73 duster grill and a 70 duster grill.
 
3406pk said:
Describe the parts broken. If it is the mounting tabs, just gluing will probably be too weak. I repaired some broken tabs by adding some spring wire as reinforcement with Epoxy Steel Putty to bond it all together. That seems to be working OK. I even used that to make a completely missing tab.
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Or you could find some thin sheet metal and cut it in the shape of the mounting tabs and just run a screw through a hole.. go to Mopar magazine and look up duster grill restoration and it will give you a step by step on how to rebuild any grill.
 
WmBaldwin57 said:
I have a few little broken pieces on my grill, any ideas on a good technique to repair them? Do you just glue back together and if so regular filler?
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I have fixed broken grille pieces before. What I do is use a die grinder to cut out the damaged piece and the new piece. After you have your new piece cut out, get the new piece to fit good. Once you are happy with how it fits in your grille, take it back out and sand/file the edges down (were it will be attached to the grille). Then place it back in the grille and use epoxy to bond it in place (I use JB Weld). After the epoxy is dry sand it smooth.
 
R72Demon said:
Yep, I just did one about a week ago. First I sanded my grille and bezels down with 800 grit sandpaper and afterwards washed everything very well with warm water and dish soap. Then I masked everything that was black off and painted it silver (used rallye wheel silver). After letting the silver dry for about 5 days, I taped all the new silver off and sprayed the rest of the grille black (used krylon fusion: satin black). Here a pic. of the end results, I still need to do the parking lamp lenses.

000_1585.jpg
Click to expand...
Holy crap that looks better then when it sat in my garage. Great work
 
Be advised that some paints will eat the plastic. If you are not using a paint designed for plastic, use VERY light coats that will dry almost on contact so the solvent will not hurt the plastic. Many light coats will look better as a result. If the color you want is not in plastic safe paints, then paint a coat of the plastic paint in what ever color, and when dry paint the second color over it. I have had great success with all of these methods and have been very pleased with the Fusion paint.
 
WmBaldwin57 said:
I have a few little broken pieces on my grill, any ideas on a good technique to repair them? Do you just glue back together and if so regular filler?
Click to expand...



I used CA super glue frome the hobby shop. It is a gap filling super glue that is made for plastic. You can glue the peice in or even just hill a crack or hole with it then sand it down when it drys.
 
WmBaldwin57 said:
I have a few little broken pieces on my grill, any ideas on a good technique to repair them? Do you just glue back together and if so regular filler?
Click to expand...

Depends. If you have the parts and can fit them together pretty well, glue them back in place. I've used good ol' brain rotting model cement. The other stuff I would recommend is Slo Zap. Slo Zap is a CA cement that sets up slowly and can be used to fill small gaps.

If stuff is pretty messed up and parts are missing, as happened on the Demon, I found a really crappy grille that was undamaged where mine was damaged. The yard operator gave it to me. I grafted the section in. With this technique, I recommend cleaning up the broken area to remove angles and irregular surfaces. Try to have joints between the pieces happen where there are right angle intersections between design elements. Cut the section out of the donor a little on the large side in all directions. File until it fits with a little tension. When you are satisfied with fit, apply the adhesive. I chamfered the edges of the joints on the patch panel and put in a little extra glue. When it dried, I went back with a fine rat tail file to square up the joint. Looks good, even up close. You have to look at the grille from the back to tell that something has been done to it.
 
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