All up in my grill

[plum500]

Hope to finish the entire bumper/grill setup this weekend. In what always seems to be an effort to create more work I decided to finish the hideaways like this. I had to grind these down quite a bit to get rid of some pitting, and then, once started, to get rid of the chrome. I actually like what I ended up with, and went with a Scotchbrite finish topped off with some wax for protection (Future floor wax on the end of a rag on your finger works great).

Anyhoo. I had painted the center line with a texture paint, as was there. I went with a gray, and it really wasn't grabbin me, went over that with black -- better, but still missing something. So, I had some anodized trim from Home Depot lying around. I completely sanded off the anodizing and hit it with a Scotchbrite pad and wax to match the outer edge of the actual grill, and mounted it in with trim/badge tape.

I'm pretty stoked about getting the whole thing done now....Here's some pics.

[Silver R/T]

Good idea, it looks nice

[mauve66]

what did it look like before the trim from home depot??

[Foreman72]

that looks awesome...i'd love 2 hear more about it...

[plum500]

Thanks for the comments

Here's a couple before pics....

[mauve66]

NOW THATS REALLY AN IMPROVEMNT, shows how much work you did

[Charger1973]

That kicks ass I cant wait to see it all together.

[1969chargerrtse]

That kicks ass I cant wait to see it all together.

[69bronzeT5]

Awesome! What an improvement! What did you use for the black paint?

[plum500]

Thanks for all the comments on this! Taking a bit longer than expected -- still have one more panel to make a strip for then I should be able to get it together. Takes about a half hour of sanding with 220 by hand to do em'. Also going through all the figuring of how to put the grill together. Seem to have some motor issues, but that's another story.

For the record, there's a spec in that top photo -- not a defect in the paint Went back over it with a fine tooth comb to check. I tried a number of black paints for finishing these, ended up with Tremclad professional - dries really fast, even, blends well, sticks great, readily accessible for me, price is right, and touches up great. Has a great sheen too, no shine, but not a chalky flat. The rest of the grill components, brackets, back of the doors etc, are done with Dupli-color low gloss black.

[69*F5*SE]

Looks great.   

[plum500]

It's getting there... still need to mount the driver's side in there...

[Silver R/T]

What paind are you using for silver?

[Charger1973]

That looks amazing so far

[plum500]

What paind are you using for silver?

The outline of the grill pieces are all just the natural sanded/Scotchbrited pot metal with some wax. Strips in the middle too -- just sanded, Scotchbrite and wax.

The surrounds are done with Dupli-color. I used the Dupli-color chrome stuff on the inside of the surrounds, and then clear coat, which gets rid of the shine/chrome effect of the paint and turns gives a nice durable gray -- while not textured like they were, the color is really close, and I like the finish better. The outline of the surrounds is done with Dupli-color high-heat (1200°) manifold/exhaust paint -- chrome/silver -- seems to have held up great with all the handling etc.