Refreshing the Grill

[PeteG41]

Probably a simple solution but wanted to ask. My grill is on good shape, besides being greasy on the driver side. I’m going to take it off and give it a good cleaning, much easier than doing it on the car. The plastic has obviously faded and would like to make it look a little better. Anyone ever painted it? I would obviously mask off the crime surrounds of the headlights but I feel like a fresh coat of black would be easy/look much better.

 

[Sheriff41]

It depends on the condition of the plastic. If it's really bad, clean it well and use a SEM trim paint (try Space Age Auto Paint on Country Club in Mesa). If it's not real bad and you have time, use a fine polishing compound and drill-mounted polishing buff (cone or cylinder) to clean up each of the honeycomb openings.

 

[ib4stangs]

If you're removing it, start soaking the 8 small attaching bolts behind headlights now. They have a good chance of wringing off when being backed off. Those plastic tabs are very easy to break too!

 

[PeteG41]

It depends on the condition of the plastic. If it's really bad, clean it well and use a SEM trim paint (try Space Age Auto Paint on Country Club in Mesa). If it's not real bad and you have time, use a fine polishing compound and drill-mounted polishing buff (cone or cylinder) to clean up each of the honeycomb openings.

I'm familiar with that place! I have been meaning to get one of those cone buffers, might be the push to go do it. Hit it with some simple green and a low setting power washer. It doesn't seem at all brittle, but I will definitely take my time.

 

[PeteG41]

If you're removing it, start soaking the 8 small attaching bolts behind headlights now. They have a good chance of wringing off when being backed off. Those plastic tabs are very easy to bWill do!

If you're removing it, start soaking the 8 small attaching bolts behind headlights now. They have a good chance of wringing off when being backed off. Those plastic tabs are very easy to break too!

Will do! The next thing on my to do list was to find an actual diagram of which screws need to come out. It was easy to do on my 78 f-150, the screws were right there in the grill insert.