nospmoht04

I guess it depends on the condition of your chrome. The last one I had the chrome was in great shape so I sealed off edges that needed it with epoxy and prepped the chrome well, cleaned it with alcohol and used epoxy primer. Everything should seal fine. I have a grille on my car now that didn't get half the prep my last one did, and I also used just a rustoleum plastics primer on it. It's been on the car for over 3 years and has held up great. 2 small nicks and I touched it up with a black paint marker, can't really notice it.

 

If your chrome is bubbling up then it would need to be removed. I would not paint over that.

Sweet, I'm next in line, now I must make up my mind.

 

 

Well I'm makin 3 at once so you'll have a little bit of time.

Agreed. Hit me up on PM when you're ready.

 

 

All boxed up and ready to ship. Sent you a PM.

The emblem is attached from the top, bottom, left and right sides with epoxy and surfaces were dremeled/sanded down to get through the finish for solid adhesion. There were two holes in the back of the mounting area on the crown vic insert and I dropped more of the adhesive through and stuck it there too. It's held in place in 6 spots very well. It's normally only held on with double sided tape, so this will be way more effective.

I just threw the emblem on and this thing is ready to go. I trimmed up the edges of the mounting spot so the emblem touches the honeycomb which looks nice.

 

 

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f178/nospmoht04/003-1.jpg

 

 

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f178/nospmoht04/006-2.jpg

I just painted SBT's grille. Two part epoxy primer was used in a paint gun with 4-5 very thin coats, then I put down a few thin coats of SEM Trim Black paint. It's pretty cool to see the amount of changes from the last one I made. The finish is beautiful and transitions are smooth, it looks nice with the insert set back and all that's left is clearing up a small pit on the outer lip and attaching the emblem. I'm also shaving off a little bit of the sides where the emblem mounting spot is so the emblem touches the overall insert instead of being an 1/8th of an inch or so off of it. It was enough to notice that the emblem sat off of the insert and it looks better touching it. Anyways here are a few pics I took after it was done.

 

 

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f178/nospmoht04/009-1.jpg

 

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f178/nospmoht04/006-1.jpg

 

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f178/nospmoht04/005-1.jpg

 

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f178/nospmoht04/004-2.jpg

 

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f178/nospmoht04/d13298ee-6f50-45d2-b863-90a2de59b459.jpg

 

 

So there's that, and I'll mail it out early next week. I show ya when the emblem is on and it's totally done.

 

 

 

Here's a couple pics of this sweet Saab that was at my father's shop. It's a 1990 Saab 9000 Airflow Turbo. It's a 4 cylinder turbo prototype of a Saab that was made and there were only 3-4 made total in the world. One to the president of Sweden, one to the president of Saab and one to this guy, the designer. Pretty cool car.

 

 

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f178/nospmoht04/008-1.jpg

 

 

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f178/nospmoht04/007-1.jpg

Are you still using the crown Vic grill for the insert?

 

Yes

2 grilles are all cut out, cleaned and sanded down ready for inserts that I have already. Doing one more and going to make 3 at once.

Correction I see my name when should I send my grill in?

 

 

It's probably best to let it play out for a while. I'll see once I make a few more who's in and who's out and be about to get a better idea when you're up. It'll be best to hang onto your grille and I'll send you a finished one and we can swap that way you aren't grilleless. I plan on making a few at a time and painting them together. I'll probably make 2-3 together next and once those go, I may try to do 5 together and send those out. I'll be in touch and let you know.

With the stuff being 2 part with a hardener, it's really rugged and lasts a lot longer than spray paint. I'm sure a thin coat of a satin black over the primer wouldn't hurt anything. I'll let you know where I'm at this weekend.

I'm going to see how it looks with just the primer at first and ask about a clearcoat or epoxy paint. When I asked my body guy orginally he looked it all over and said he would just black epoxy primer it. He said you want to keep it as thin as possible so it wouldn't chip and said you COULD paint over the primer but he would leave it as is. I'll wait for it all to dry and get a good look at how it turns out before making a decision.

 

I can post some pics and let you decide, worst case if it doesn't end up looking good with just the primer down the road, it'd be sandable and a great surface to paint on.

SBT - I have something set up to get the grille painted on Saturday. It'll be a black epoxy primer and will be done with a paint gun. If all looks fine after its painted it should be good to go not long after.

Here's the list so everyone has an idea of what's going on. 47 grilles with 1 just needing paint.

 

 

 

JamesLaw

Yourconfused

Rockford

bermo

kndstrouble

Barmanbean

stevegspear

thisheregiraffe

floater163

rob-2

Burba88

leakypipe86

jfg22557

theatreofdreams

Alopez6337

Bladeversion1

Connor

Slobaru

Joeboo98

omenjh

Scooby2.5

90G60

Nightmaresmk

Pt Pixel

Rockgod

totaled04Rex

Blackbird97

rexnebula

PoTTaNz

Jeffer

TeriyakiBBS

kongzilla

ExqlusivE

big_tom

scoobyskier

 

 

I wrote people down as they asked and dated next to their names. If I messed up anyone's name or anything let me know. I get that a lot happens in a year and a half. Sold your car, bought another grille, or just don't feel like buying one but if you could just let me know if you aren't interested so I have a realistic idea of what I'm working with, that'd be a big help.

 

It's been slow going since I stopped making them for a while. The first one took a lot of trial and error and overall time, and the last one was probably twice as fast when I had time to work on it. Today I made a template out of the one and only insert I just tore out from another project. Now I can cut right to that shape and get used to cutting them, making things 10 times easier. I have better tools to apply the epoxy, and a faster, easier way to blend the parts. I decided to use a satin or flat black epoxy primer which is a more durable finish and should beast through winters. Epoxy primer is expensive by aerosol can so I might make a few at a time and have them painted together.

 

The last one I made, I set the insert back off of the lip and liked how it turned out. There are some progress pics of it a page or so back. I'm going to keep making them like this. I've got almost enough materials to make 6 more now but I'll be looking around for a couple grilles soon.

 

I plan on putting some time into making more and hopefully get a bunch done soon. I will let ya know.

Hey guys in response to adding you I can absolutely do that. However, the list of 2 people up above there, that's just the next two people in line. I posted that at work and didn't have the entire list. The whole list is around 42 people. That's going back the past year and a half of people asking to be added. I fully expect people to back out or not respond so I'm sure it'll shrink.

Finishing up the S402 Grille for SBT as soon as primer hits it and I'm looking ahead to the next people on the list. What I'll do is mention who would be up next and you'll have until the grille is finished to say whether or not you want to buy it. If I don't hear anything then I'll try and get in touch with who is after that. Right now I would have:

 

JJr

06silvarubiLGT

 

I know it's been a while since you guys showed interest so I completely understand if that has fallen through. I'll let you know when things are moving along. Thanks.

Grille has been ready for primer since Thurs/Fri. I'm waiting for my body shop to get back to me since I definitely want to use epoxy primer on it. They're closed Fridays so I expect to hear back soon. I called a few places locally but no one has black epoxy primer in an aerosol can. It sounds like I'd have to wait for some to be shipped anyways so I'll go with the body shop and let you know when it's done.

I'll look into that. Spray can would probably be easiest but I wouldn't mind getting a cheaper smaller compressor from harbor freight and a paint gun.

I changed the coloring in those pics from today so you can actually see now. It should be pretty shlick with black paint on it.

 

 

 

 

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f178/nospmoht04/57b68c2a-24d7-45d4-bffa-5e8406cd4f19.jpg

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f178/nospmoht04/5b05a599-3ad6-4e6c-97dc-5ce13e43365c.jpghttp://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f178/nospmoht04/32fafd5a-2e65-45fa-be45-7a830ac798da.jpg

Can you do this with an OB grill if I send you one?

 

As long as the insert reaches all sides of the OB shell. Can really do anything with these materials. As far as you sending me yours that'd be a while off and I'd have to let you know later when that is.

When I used to work with RBS to make there 08-09 product line we use a gel coating on the final products as it fills in the minor surface imperfections and can be sanded as well if needed. This allowed for a very smooth finish to be present post molding to where you could choose to either paint it or not. With a Grill like that you would want a spray gel coating and not the brushed kind.

 

Coincidentally my father showed me that stuff today. It's a gel in a squeeze tube that's like a primer/bondo mix. Sort of an in between step. I should try that out, seems like it'd get into little areas.

I might have figured out a way to remove the chrome that's quite a bit easier than the bleach method. With a 9 bolt battery, some speaker wire and a hydrochloric acid solution I should be able to reverse electroplate the chrome without harming the plastic. I'm gonna test it out on a scrap grille and see how it goes.

 

I also talked to my body shop guy and he said to get it where I want it and he'll hit it with a thin coat of black epoxy primer which will stand up to flex, temperature and debris much better. He also suggested looking into powder coating but it may not stand up to the temperatures. I can drop off a junk grille at the powder coat shop and he said he'll throw it in with something else and see if it turns into a pile of goo or not.

 

So a few more options here to look into. Exploring everything I can think of so I can get a good routine going and make them as durable as possible. I'll keep ya posted.

Oh sweet thanks. I knew there was a way to brighten them but I didn't have time to figure it out. I'll sit down after work tonight and try to tweak em a little.

 

Man it looks nice in the pic with it brightened a bit. I'm likin this look more and more. Maybe I'll just...keep...this one...

double post, please delete

So here are some crappy cell phone pics, I'll have to get ahold of the little digital camera we have cause these come out awful. They're way too dark.

 

The adhesive on the outer edges looks pretty choppy in the pics but it's just the lighting, everything is pretty smooth at this point and I'm adding a very small amount of bondo to fill in any little pits or lines. Once I prime it, I'll throw on a few coats of primer filler as well and wet sand it with some 400 and 1000 grit. Might be over the top but I have the sandpaper so hey why not. Point is once everything is laid on you won't see many, if any, defects or blemishes.

 

I wanted to show some of the ugly lookin prep work so you can see what I'm doing to try and make paint stick and avoid having it chip as long as possible.

 

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f178/nospmoht04/004-1.jpg

 

Everything you see here is sanded with 180 and 240 grit to knock down the bondo and patch panel adhesive so it's relatively aggressive and will smooth out later. I'll use some 320 before the plastics primer, then like I said the 400+ after the high build primer.

 

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f178/nospmoht04/008.jpg

 

These prep pics are from 2 days ago, so I've done a little more than what's here but I'm almost done and ready for primer now.

 

A few minutes ago I went out and set it in place on my car to get a few pics of it looking installed.

 

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f178/nospmoht04/016-1.jpg

 

It's too bad these are so dark but it's what I've got for now.

 

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f178/nospmoht04/015-1.jpg

 

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f178/nospmoht04/018.jpg

 

 

That's where I'm at right now. I'm digging the look and I'm very happy with how it's coming out right now. I've prepped every surface for a better paint job, and I made it sturdy as hell by adding extra adhesive. I have a friend of mine who's owned a body shop for 30 years who I called yesterday. I'm going to stop by there and have him take a look at it and give me some tips on possibly what else to do to prep it right and how I should pime, high build prime, sand and paint it. Just to make sure I'm not missing anything worth doing. I was also considering using a small amount of non-gloss clear coat to add a little protection from rocks and stuff from damaging it. What's your guys' opinion on that? It'd also protect against fading. Just an idea, I may test it out on some scrap pieces and see how it looks.

Haha that's awesome, nice find.