Sixpaksteve
Well-Known Member
As an FYI and a 'Thanks!' to some folks who answered some questions I had about this topic earlier this year, I thought I'd share what I ended up doing with my Grille...
- Since my Grille and headlight Bezels were original pieces but 'tired', I wanted to restore them, not replace them.
- My Stainless Steel surround pieces were the worst and after trying to find a source who could take the dents out for a reasonable cost, I ended up replacing all 4 SS pieces with reproduction parts instead. I bought them from Jeff at 521 Restorations. He gave me a very fair price on them based on the price quotes I got from several other vendors, and Jeff's shipping was fast and the parts were very securely packaged.
- I bought the Dark Argent, Textured Grille paint from Totally Auto (rattle cans), and for the black louvers in the Grill I used another rattle can of Satin Black from Ace Hardware. I sprayed the Grille myself and what took the longest was the masking off of the areas that I didn't want painted when I switched from the Argent to Black. (My advice - don't be in a hurry when painting anything like this.
I'm VERY happy with the paint products I chose and how the Grille turned out.
- The new stainless steel trim pieces slid onto my original Grille and Bezels fairly easily, but again, patience was key here.
In the pics, you can see the new SS Trim on the repainted Bezels, and you can see the center Grille painted but I hadn't put the 2 long trim pieces on it just yet.
- Since my Grille and headlight Bezels were original pieces but 'tired', I wanted to restore them, not replace them.
- My Stainless Steel surround pieces were the worst and after trying to find a source who could take the dents out for a reasonable cost, I ended up replacing all 4 SS pieces with reproduction parts instead. I bought them from Jeff at 521 Restorations. He gave me a very fair price on them based on the price quotes I got from several other vendors, and Jeff's shipping was fast and the parts were very securely packaged.
- I bought the Dark Argent, Textured Grille paint from Totally Auto (rattle cans), and for the black louvers in the Grill I used another rattle can of Satin Black from Ace Hardware. I sprayed the Grille myself and what took the longest was the masking off of the areas that I didn't want painted when I switched from the Argent to Black. (My advice - don't be in a hurry when painting anything like this.
I'm VERY happy with the paint products I chose and how the Grille turned out. - The new stainless steel trim pieces slid onto my original Grille and Bezels fairly easily, but again, patience was key here.
In the pics, you can see the new SS Trim on the repainted Bezels, and you can see the center Grille painted but I hadn't put the 2 long trim pieces on it just yet.
