Painted my grille

The grille on my car had bad chrome from tree sap or something like that, it wasn't peeling but was basically worn off the top of the grille where the "CHEVROLET" lettering is.

About a week ago, I got sick of it and painted the grille with "Dover White" Krylon Fusion paint. I lightly sanded what I could with 1500 grit just in case, the grille itself was already pretty worn, not chipped but the years of road anomalies gave it a dull appearance. After I had painted it, I gave it a final shot of the Duplicolor paint I had that is "supposed" to be the factory color for my car according to the paint code, but from a distance the grill looked a little more yellowish in the antique white direction than it should have. I also thought it looked weird as far as seeing where all the screw mounts were in the eggcrate section of the grille.




Today I took it off again quick, resprayed it with the white Krylon, then after letting it set about 15 minutes in my house on the radiator, taped off everything but the eggcrate section and shot it again with "Satin Black" a few times.




It didn't come out 100% perfect if you really scrutinize around those curved corners of the eggcrate area, and I wish the white paint leveled out a little better (the satin black looks a bit shinier than the white! LOL) but whatever- I did all of this in about 20 minutes spread out over an hour while I was doing some other stuff around my house, it was almost dark out, and it was 30 degrees out too...I usually talk my own stuff down but I think it came out pretty good.

Looks good from here!
I like that fix, put it on & lets see

It's still drying! Well it's dry, but I want to let it cure as long as I can before I put it back on there. LOL

Testament to how good this paint is, even with my ghetto Malden outdoor in the winter paint and body work tactics it still came out pretty nice.

I kinda want to do that to mine too.

Looks good, Matt! I diggit!

You could tape off the black again and hit the white with a clear to make it shine a little better, maybe?

You can always buy my SS grille cheaper than ever if you want some more options to try

Good work on the paint job.

cloud 9 wrote:

I kinda want to do that to mine too.

Your car is too clean! lol

I mainly did this because my grille was crap, and the car is sort of boring...yours is awesome! I'd try to preserve that one!

toomanytoyz wrote:

Looks good, Matt! I diggit!

You could tape off the black again and hit the white with a clear to make it shine a little better, maybe?

Thanks! I'll decide after it's all cured on there, I'm thinking the satin black might need to dry a while to get to it's final appearance, but I put it on there kind of thick. Maybe I'll just clear the whole thing all together or something. I'm really just relieved it came out this good and the paint didn't bleed behind the tape, I hate masking for paint and don't even use tape when I paint ceilings and rooms!

bammax wrote:

You can always buy my SS grille cheaper than ever if you want some more options to try

Good work on the paint job.

I didn't forget you had that one, we'll see what happens... Thanks man.

Now it's going to look weird with the stock wheels and a painted grille.

I also painted the trim on the lip of the trunklid, it was in worse shape than the grille, and had a stress crack in it. One of the pegs broke off the back when I was trying to remove it too, so I figured I didn't have much to lose if I screwed it all up.

It's always a good idea to practice on rough parts. Once you have the technique down then you can find nicer parts to work off of. I liked the way the Fusion went on but I never found a way to get it to hold up like it's supposed to. I usually end up going back to the knockoff wal-mart paint in the blue cans. That stuff sticks to everything, whether you want it to or not.

LOOKS GREAT!

So where the Hell are the installed pics???

Okay keep your shirt on









Looks fine the way it is I guess, I may clear the whole thing when it's warm out again.

Comparison before, you can see the crappy chrome if you look along the top, it was really bad in person.



I may put a nicer chrome grille on there again sometime...

Nice. I like the change.

Looks great! Better than the chrome for sure and different than the SS grill, so good work

Doug

It's now personalized! looks real good.
Now lets talk about how much time you spend in the cemetary

sdstick wrote:

It's now personalized! looks real good.
Now lets talk about how much time you spend in the cemetary

I KNEW you'd mention that, you mentioned it last time hahaha

The most convenient and easiest place that's close by for me to go take quick pictures of a vehicle is either Forestdale or Holy Cross Cemetery...

I already have my next modification planned, but that will have to wait until I can take the stock wheels and tires off in the spring...

I must say, that's a pretty handsome lookin ride you got there.

I really like it!

cloud 9 wrote:

I must say, that's a pretty handsome lookin ride you got there.

I'd rather have lace alloys...

I noticed something funny yesterday morning- I was going up the highway with my headights on in the left lane, not really tailgating anyone or anything but here and there, you wound up getting stuffed behind a car doing about 55 and blocking the way. Well almost everyone moved over into the middle lane...usually NO ONE moves and you're stuck for about 10 miles. I thought it was unusual, then realized that some of the people must be confusing my car with it's black grille for:



That's the only explanation I can think of!

For a while and just for this reason I was going to look for one of those decommissioned metallic graphite colored Crown Vics that the MSP uses for unmarked cars right now, you can usually find one with under 65K for about 6 grand if you look around. Not bad cars but I think they're too slow for what they are...I think my car with it's TBI 305 might be a little quicker than my friend's 04ish Crown Vic is.

LiveFreeorDieTryin wrote:

I really like it!

Thanks! I like the silver one you just got!

Matt Trakker wrote:

cloud 9 wrote:

I must say, that's a pretty handsome lookin ride you got there.

I'd rather have lace alloys...

I noticed something funny yesterday morning- I was going up the highway with my headights on in the left lane, not really tailgating anyone or anything but here and there, you wound up getting stuffed behind a car doing about 55 and blocking the way. Well almost everyone moved over into the middle lane...usually NO ONE moves and you're stuck for about 10 miles. I thought it was unusual, then realized that some of the people must be confusing my car with it's black grille for:



That's the only explanation I can think of!

For a while and just for this reason I was going to look for one of those decommissioned metallic graphite colored Crown Vics that the MSP uses for unmarked cars right now, you can usually find one with under 65K for about 6 grand if you look around. Not bad cars but I think they're too slow for what they are...I think my car with it's TBI 305 might be a little quicker than my friend's 04ish Crown Vic is.

I've had this happen for years.All the way back to when i had a 89 9c1.
It still happens even with the 95
I think it's engrained in peoples subconsious after seeing caprice cop cars for so many years.I always laugh at people driving in front of real cop cars going EXACTLY the speed limit. You see them constantly on the brakes.

Matt Trakker wrote:

LiveFreeorDieTryin wrote:

I really like it!

Thanks! I like the silver one you just got!

Me too, Thanks!