[Bry68]

So it looks like a previous owner painted EVERYTHING on my grille black.

What would it take to get the chrome trim around the edges back? Would I need to tape it off and repaint it? If so, what color? I was thinking of just using the Duplicolor chrome paint (which is kind of like a shiny silver).

Or, on the other hand, should I just keep it black? What are your opinions? Thanks.

 

[TSTONE]

I like the look and am thinking of going that way - BUT plan on buying repop stuff and painting that instead. As for the Duplicolor chrome paint - I would first recommend seeing if you can get your originals soaked/stripped and see what shape they're in - at worst case you prime and repaint from there.

 

[JimM]

I've repainted the trim on mine a number of times, the flying rocks are hard on the black paint.

The good news is those peices are stainless, not chrome, so you can't hurt em or scratch em, and if you do they'll polish right up.

I'd take it all off the car, separate the top and bottom strips from the plastic grill, and use a good chemical stripper to get the paint off, then mask and repaint, after first polishing up the to remain exposed parts if they need it.

Don't paint the silver, just the black

 

[KevinK7]

...I believe those parts (upper/lower chrome and bezels) are aluminum (not stainless).
Personally, ...I'm not a fan of painting it all black (but again, ...YOUR preference is what matters). IF you wanted the 'not all black' look, ...for the cost of a (repo) grill kit, ...I'd simply order the parts and replace it. They are already painted, ...you don't have to mess with unriveting/reriveting the plastic grill center, etc. etc.
...Those wheels by the way look great on there :thumbsup:

 

[Bry68]

Okay, dumb question: Is the trim totally separate from the plastic grill? Like KevinK7 mentioned, can I just drill out the rivets, put stripper on the trim and rivet them back on? I've got a riveter. I've noticed a couple of chrome trim lines, are they all just riveted on (except the headlights)? It looks like there is supposed to be kind of an "inner" chrome trim area and "outer" chrome trim area.

 

[Mike_M]

Here's a pic of mine, it's just loosely put together - there are basically five parts to the grille, the plastic grille itself, the upper and lower moldings, and the headlight bezels. Mine went together without any rivets, the upper and lower moldings have studs that go into holes in the plastic grille and speed nuts hold them on, the headlight bezels have some screw holes that line up on the bottom with the lower molding, and I haven't quite figured out what they screw to at the top. You should be able to disassemble the grille and strip the moldings, polish the areas that should be chrome, and re-paint the areas that should be black. Be careful when you're doing it, I tried re-finishing some old headlight bezels, I stripped them with chemical stripper and I tried polishing the chrome areas, unfortunately I tried to sand out some of the marks, using 1500 or 2000 grit paper, and found that they are indeed not stainless, but chrome plated aluminum or something similar. I sanded through the chrome finish in a couple of spots. They didn't turn out very well. I ended up buying reproduction headlight bezels from Classic Headquarters.

 

[JimM]

The trim is a separate upper and lower peice. They were originally riveted to the grille, the repro trim pieces come with a sack of screws and nuts to replace the rivets.

And yes, that is exactly what I recommended above. take it all apart, chemically strip the paint from the metal trim, and repaint the areas that are supposed to be black.

 

[Mike_M]

Hmm... this happens to me a lot - I post trying to help with something I think I actually know about, and end up with more questions myself than answers I think I've contributed - how did the original moldings rivet on? Did the rivets go right through the moldings into the grille? My upper and lower moldings are NOS GM pieces (at least they came in GM boxes that were still sealed), they came with threaded studs out the back. The grille hardware kit I bought came with screws to hold the headlight bezels on (they screw into the grill), should they be riveted on instead? What do they attach to at the top? (I still haven't figured that out- there's two holes that line up and a couple of screws, but nothing to screw into)

 

[Bry68]

Cool, that helps a lot. Thanks Jim for the explanation. Mike_M, thanks for the great pic, that really helps. One last question (hopefully). How tough is it to tell which part is chrome and which part is black on the trim? I'm looking at a picture of the new parts (like at http://www.parts123.com/parts123/yb.dll?Parta~ShowPicTxt~Z5Z5Z50000358e~Z5Z5Z5EAPRV~Z5Z5Z51) and it looks like it might not be that straightforward. Is it just mostly a flat portion, or does it curve around at all? Thanks.

 

[Mike_M]

On the moldings you should be able to eyeball it okay, and it's a straight line. I can take a closeup pic of mine tonight if it would help. The bezels are a bit trickier, when I did mine I found it difficult to mask the curves, the cheap masking tape I was using might have been why. I painted them with Mar-Hyde trim black, it looked quite good but when I took the masking tape off I found my masking job wasn't as good as I had thought it was. That coupled with the areas I'd sanded through on the chrome made me decide to replace them.

 

[Bry68]

I've got the grille out, and the trim stripped of paint. I'm getting ready for primer and satin black paint. Did you guys use a clear coat? If so, is it only over the black or over the black AND the bare metal chrome part? Also, are the headlight bezel screws supposed to be black or stainless? I've got stainless screws but could shoot a quick coat of black over them while I'm doing the bezels. Thanks.

 

[JimM]

the bezel screws are shiny, not black.

I'm not positive about the rivets, read it here sometime in the past, never saw my car with any, long gone if they ever existed.

 

[Bry68]

Well, since no one has strong feelings one way or the other, I think I'm going to clear coat all of it (chrome part and black). If any thinks that's stupid, stop me before I do it! Thanks.