Ok, last year there was a Thread posted on Grill restoration.many of us talked about glues and fillers to repair broken Grills.Well I purchased a 71 GS Grill for $400.00 with some cracks at each top end and a broken top 2 fin points. Also the grill top drivers side was broken loose at each lower fin mounting block and warped.I have 12+ hours restoring my grill. I used one of the products recomended in last Thread. {Plastie weld} I myself am really happy with it and have had many complements from others.Have also had many offers to buy. Ive posted a pics.so my fellow BUICK lovers can give it a look. Anyone with a grill in need of restoration that does not know where to start you can request me to post step by step procedure which i used.Your feedback from all negative or positive is wanted . this may help me to improve my restorations that i am doing on others.
Looks really good. I just finished a '71 Custom grille for my own car. Lots & lots of time involved in these jobs.
71 grill I'm also into a restoration project of my own. I have used plastic steel and a An epoxy called plastic bonder that works on fiberglas as well as plastic. The whole trick is with all bonding glues, is to make sure both sides of the surfaces are sanded and cleaned. Also that you glue both surfaces so you get a good bond. Clean,Clean,Clean!!! I now have about 20 hours in my project. I still have about another 20 hours to go. But looking at the alternative and the below freezing temperatures outside, I will take the time to do a top notch restoration. I can also help on missing pieces. If anyone is missing some pieces for ther 71 grills I can help. Good Luck!! Great job on your Show grill!!!! Sparkplug
71 Grill Yes ,your right ,the first thing i did was to clean my grill with 409 and scrubed it in the bathtub. Then every where there was a crack or chip I sanded off the factory Grill paint,then cleaned area before applying the plastie weld glue.Patience is required for this restoration.you got to do i area at a time and let dry before moving on ,{if it bad} you can do many minor spots at one time.Plastie Weld drys fast,and smells awful. SO do it in a well vented area. freakazoid
paint Freakazoid, What kind of paint did you use on you grill? This being plastic I don't want to take the chance on melting the grill using the wrong kind. What do you recomend. Sparkplug.
Well now that you mention it... I assume that is Black semi gloss, and what is that Grey semi gloss also? Do I need to use a primer first? o No: :bglasses: Oh, and I think the grille looks nice. :TU:
Unless your grille is made of styro-foam, I don't think you should have to worry about melting it when painting it:grin: The grille looks great! I'm partial to the 71's myself.
Grill paint I used Krylon brand paint.Which was recomended to me by another guy that restored grills from the old thread.and yes its a semi gloss. I did one before with a flat greyish silver that matched original,but it water spoted later .so on this one I used a semi gloss ill look for the black part no. but I MAY no longer have the can of silver. All I did was found A ORIGINAL SPOT ON GRILL THAT THE OLD PAINT LOOKED GOOD FROM BEING HID FROM SUN BY THE BUMPER.WENT TO THE KRYLON PAINT SECTION AND MATCHED THE PAINT,BUT WENT TO A SEMI GLOSS. Its held up like the day i painted it.The black I used what was recomended.WET SAND EVENLY {everywhere} WITH 400 GT. SAND PAPER.NO PRIMER NEEDED This weekend i can post complete directions step by step {if wanted} from prep, crack repair to painting. Freakazoid
I have found for the silver and black that plasti-kote makes to be excellent. Semi-gloss black "hot rod black" (T3 I think) and the "dull aluminum lacquer" (T41 i think) and they work excellent for the silver and black on taillights and grilles....the silver even has a slight rough texture which is very authentic (looking at my NOS taillights, anyway). Here is a picture of a 71 grille I repaired for my 71 GS 455, now sold...I don't remember what I used for the grey (sorry about quality, had to resize for this forum). Also, the part place inc is apparently re-poping the 71 GS grille...should be out in a month or so...no word on price yet, I would expect it to be 500.00 or so, which is fine as long as the quality is good. I plan on reviewing one for my website it if I can get my hands on one... Just some options. later Tim
prill pic. Nice job,looks like mine.How about telling us how you did your hood vents. Im about to restore a set. Freakazoid :TU:
My hood scoop inserts were pretty clean so simply scuffed them up with scothbrite, then painted them hot rod black. Once that dried, masked off outside edge and sprayed that dull aluminum lacquer. Peeled tape off and let dry, then put on the silver lines in the middle. Tedious, but turned out really nice and have now been on car for 15 years with no touchups. The silver doesn't like masking tape very much so I put that on last wherever possible. On the grill it was the easiest anyway...sprayed the black where I needed it. Then put vinyl tape over that (into the depressions). Sprayed the grey onto the checkered part. Once dry masked that off (easy to do) and sprayed the silver last... later Tim
