DIY Grill Done Right (Plus Fog Bezel Matching)

Hey All,

This is a bit of a "not-really-a-walkthrough" on the classic DIY Grill (plus FB match), the basics have already been covered repeatedly so I thought it not necessary to beat that horse....................... perhaps "chronicling" is a better word.

This one was done for hutru01's LGT (Miracle Whip), he was looking to "flat black" the grill and smooth the "chrome strip step" (while also matching the fog light bezels). So,I figured If we were going flat, why not shoot for the stars and go for a "production part" look that would mimic "molded" plastic or "fine leather".


This was done using the following:

(Tools, grits and techniques vary for desired finish)


OEM GRILL
DREMEL (sanding drum attach.)
COMPRESSOR
PNUEMATIC GRINDER (50 grit)
JIGSAW
HEAT GUN


ABS PLASTIC
Loc-Tite Epoxy
HD mesh (lumber aisle-ish, "gutter guard", ~2ftx6ft)
Sand paper (60, 100, 150, 300, 000 steel wool)
zip ties
velcro


Rust-oleum Flat Grey Spray Primer (initial)
RO Flat Black Spray Paint
Painter's Touch Flat Clear Enamel (texture)
RO Crystal Clear Enamel (finish)
PT Flat Grey Primer (final coat)
PT Flat White (mesh)


Bondo-Glass
Bondo (regular)


Probably forgot a bunch of stuff, but that's the jist.


Note: Anywhere it says "coat of paint", its actually multiple light coatings.



Enjoy.














































































Notes before post:

Regardless of the finish choice, the fill/prep work remains roughly the same, but the final steps vary.

You can not achieve this finish with "of the shelf" textured paints

Here's a link to the DIY lower grills:

http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61843

Matt, put up some day pics.


Feel free to query.

Nice work. Looks really good. Great write up. Now get some pictures in the daytime.

Day pics added to post #15 on page 3

Great job and great walkthrough.

I initially used textured paint when I did my grill and it looked great...until I washed the car a few times. When I dried the grill with a terry cloth towel, the small strands of towel were snagged by the texture in the paint. Ended up looking dull and full of tiny strands of cloth from the towel. I ended up sanding it down and used a plain low sheen smooth paint..

Keep in mind that I initially used the plain ole textured paint in a can, and I did not do the great paint layering you did.

Yours looks great though, and I am sure you will not run into the same problem. I just wanted to let the lazy people (like me) know that you can't just spray on the textured paint and expect great results.

Looks great. Very extensive prep and paint process!


I think the Miracle Whip will look best with the grille mesh blacked out upper and lower though... blends in better with the black hood scoop hole, black bezels and (soon to be) blacked out headlights.

Just my .02$

^^^^^ We originally had the grille mesh done in black and you couldn't see it at all. The white makes it stand out more. Plus the car being white, We figured it would set it off.....You will see a bigger difference when I post daytime pics later. Ok, gotta get back to work....

Ahhh, yeah, fine mesh disappears when black. You are right.


The RBS folks went through a few mesh designs a couple of years back before they found a mesh that stood out when powdercoated black. Their mesh is pretty chunky and spaced out.

Looking forward to more pics when ready!

Looks good, it will look better once it's Black.

^^^^^ read previous post....Its not visible when its black....trust me, just wait until you see the before and after pics....

I agree, your write up is amazingand the grill looks amazing.

For all that work though I will spend the money to get one. As great as that grill looks I do not have the time or patients to accomplish that.

Here's a quick comparison of the white vs. black mesh. In person the choice was obvious.

With the black it had too much depth and looked kinda silly

With the white it gave a nice "stop" to the visual recession into the engine bay and gives a real classy/clean look .Its kinda like the black spiderman suit, the color is leaching in to the openings from the panels.

Originally Posted by andrew.anderson

I agree, your write up is amazingand the grill looks amazing.

For all that work though I will spend the money to get one. As great as that grill looks I do not have the time or patients to accomplish that.

Thanks

Yeah, I'll admit its definately not for the "weak-of-modding" (read: only crazy people would do this). It was a bit of a headache to go the way I did, but the end result is a one-off part that you couldn't get anywhere else.

It took several hours (dozen or-so including drying times) and IT WASN'T EVEN FOR MY CAR!!!

Oh well, I really enjoy to build and mod (its how I relax) and I was very pleased with the final product. The unique finish made it worth it and I was "vacationing" so I figured..... why not?

nice! thats what i did with my grill too... took down that step. looks a hell of a lot nicer!

^^^Generally, people don't curse that much when they are "relaxing".

I resized these in imageshack to fit the forum. You will see why the white mesh works out so much better due to shadowing. Btw, it is a flat white, I didn't want my grill to shine at all.