Progress Photos - Grille Restoration

[Shakey]

Here are a few photos of the grille, before and after. 

After disassembling the grille and spending a lot of time cleaning, degreasing and removing the dead bugs from it, a total of 8 hours was spent wet sanding it, (started with a 400, then to 800 then to 1000 and finally with 1500) it was almost ready for the paint.

There were a few pieces that needed to be repaired, some of the fins as well as some of the mounting tabs.  The fins were replaced with some small pieces cut from another grille and glued into place.  The mounting tabs needed a bit more attention.  What we did was take a thin piece of aluminium and rivet in to the underside of the mounting tab and then used plastic filler to cover it up.  It was then sanded to a smooth finish and the only way to tell it has been repaired is by the two rivets seen through the platic filler.  Once it is mounted in the car, no one will ever know, except for anyone that reads this post! 

My Father-In-Law and I are quite pleased with the results with the exception of the LH headlight door as the outter support tab is broken and it sags (you can see that in the last photo).  I will redo one from the parts grille I purchased last week.

Many thanks to the members on this board for their suggestions as to how to do this properly and an extra tip of the hat to 4404spd from TN as it was his paint suggestions and process that I followed.  Our goal was to make mine look as good as his. Thanks! 

Now to round up the mouldings, remove the dings, straighten them and buff them to a nice shine.

Thanks all, we couldn't have done it without your help!

[MoparYoungGun]

[Bob]

Ditto

[Charger4404spd]

Looks great Shakey, be sure to post a pic when you get the trim back on it.

[Lowprofile]

Nice work, Bro. Looks like a new one.

[73rallye440magnum]

very nice job, it looks great.

[Silver R/T]

nice job, you did great resto

[Charger_Fan]

Looks great!


How are you on '70 grilles?