Grill surgery.

[terrible one]

A long time ago my car was involved in a collision that smashed up the front pretty good. The grill was thrashed and the owner saved what he could, which included everything but the plastic. The headlight door assemblies were thrashed and the center piece thrashed besides the actual "grill" part. He then located and bought a grill that was complete besides having a small hole melted through the center section. Therefore, I have everything for a complete and perfect grill but a good center section.

The only part good on the original is the actual rectangle grill part.
The one that was bought is fine besides the hole in the center and a little hole in one part.

I plan to graft pieces from the original center piece into the burnt one and end up with a nice center piece. I was just wondering how I would go about this

1) What would I use to cut the sections out? It would need to not be a power tool so taht I don't melt the plastic, but really thin and all for nice cuts.
2) What should I use to stick the pieces together?

I think that if I can graft the pieces in nicely and then sand it all smooth with real fine grit paper it will look fine. Am I on the right track?

[dodge freak]

Not sure how to but a good body shop might. A good bump guy can repair plastic now a days. Might not be cheap but if he is sure he can do it I would let him do it. After you or they paint it you can not even tell any thing happen. A custom shop might be good to depends on where you live.

[Mike DC]

    
It's hard to understand the situation without a few pics.

It's probably repairable if you've got enough pieces to construct one entire grille's worth of plastic.  Plastic glues have a terrible reputation for sucking, but lately people are having better luck with the new ones (like 3M's collision-shop stuff).

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Either way, take solace in the fact that they're gonna reproduce that '68/69 grille eventually.  So you probably don't need to make it a perfect-for-a-lifetime repair, you just need to get something that you can tolerate looking at for another couple years in the meantime.

     

[terrible one]

dodgefreak,

I'm sure you are right, but I would like to do this for myself. I don't have much money and need to spend it on essentials.

Mike DC,

I have look it over and do have a full grills worth. I'll get some pics up shortly. I guess that I just need to get some recommendations on a good plastic glue then. I was thinking that if I can graft it fair enough and sand it smooth with a high grit paper once it's painted it will be fine.

[terrible one]

Alright, here are some pictures of the center pieces:


* Grill I plan to use, with melted spot and small broken spot:

Melted spot




Small broken spot





Original grill, all shot besides center part, which will be used for parts:

[terrible one]

bump...anyone?

[dodge freak]

Call Eastwood or go on line at www.eastwood.com they have all types of stuff to restore car parts. Their prices are high but its good stuff and they might have what you need to do it.phone #1-800-345-1178 you can call and ask them.

[terrible one]

Call Eastwood or go on line at www.eastwood.com they have all types of stuff to restore car parts. Their prices are high but its good stuff and they might have what you need to do it.phone #1-800-345-1178 you can call and ask them.

Thanks man. I have visited their site and see some nice stuff and plan to use some of their paint and some of 3M's panel adhesive, but I was just wondering if anyone knew of a common tool or blade or something I could pick up locally to cut the grill up. I'm probably being too anal when any realy fine serated blade woudl do but just wonderin

[Mike DC]

Hey man.

I've heard a lot of positive things about the 3M stuff lately.  I haven't tried it on Charger parts yet myself, but the Mopar stuff is basically just old ABS plastic so it should be similiar to a lot of other cars' stuff.

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For cutting grille plastic, I'd be using only one thing:  A Dremel tool. 
Make it a plug-in model Dremel, using their (overpriced) little fiberglass-reinforced cutoff wheels for this job. 

     

[dodge freak]

I have used those cut off wheels and it cuts fast and smooth. Watch out if it gets hot and starts smoking you don't want to breath that smoke in. All sorts of toxic stuff that grill plastic might be made of. The flexable cable is nice to have to. But yes all this stuff is not cheap,but its nice to have. Sears makes some heavy duty cut off wheels that size too. Just get the heavy duty ones otherwise they break in 1 min.

[4402tuff4u]

I would use a hack saw blade and gently cut the damaged section out and the good section out. If the blade is to wide, you could use those wire abrasive saws. It's just a wire/thin cable with an abrassive surface that cuts through just about anything.   

[Shakey]

I would use a hack saw blade and gently cut the damaged section out and the good section out. If the blade is to wide, you could use those wire abrasive saws. It's just a wire/thin cable with an abrassive surface that cuts through just about anything.   

That is exactly what I used.  The thinest hack saw blade I could find and cut very slowly.

[RT/SE]

I have used a Dremel with great success in fixing up broken grill parts.  You can get very small and thin cutting wheels that fit a dremel.  Just take your time and cut nice and slow.  For bonding I have used SEM plastic adhesive and also JB Cold Weld.  I have had good results with both.  I have been able to sand things out with no problems to the point of not being able to detect a repair.  Just take you time and I'm sure you will do a great job.

[terrible one]

Thanks for the info man. I've got a dremel but will need to pick up some cutting wheels. I'll post some progress sometime later, very busy right now.

[terrible one]

Hey TripleX9, any idea on the part number on the SEM plastic adhesive?

[1973_WP29P]

3M makes a plastic adhesive also.


                                                 Rod

[RT/SE]

terrible one........I believe the SEM # is 39767.  That is for the SEM problem plastic adhesive.  I picked mine up at my local PPG paint supply shop.  They have a pretty good SEM section.  Hope this helps out......TripleX9

[terrible one]

Thanks man I appreciate it.