'71-'72 inner grille

[grebus1]

I need to spiff up the plastic inner grille on my '72. I've seen people paint them black, but I'm not sure about that. What have you guys done to the inner grille to improve its appearance? If you left it gray, what did you clean it with or paint it with?

[JimKshortstep4x4]

We clean with simple green, scrape off paint/undercoat, etc. reclean with simple green, clean with alcohol, prime and paint.

We use Rustoleum Automotive Gray primer and coat over that with Alumi-blast from Eastwood. When dry, we black out the upper mounts and lower 3/4" strip of the grill with Rustoleum flat black.

I can post a pic if you like.

Jim

[gman]

Jim,

Yeah, if you don't mind, lets see a pic! I'm interested.

[Phillip Johnson]

I find that 3200 psi works the best and keeps the orig color

[JimKshortstep4x4]

The pic is not real clear. It is too dark now but I can take one in the daylight tomorrow evening if you can't see the blackout, (the blackout makes the supports almost disappear).

Jim

[FRENCHBLUE72]

That look's pretty good I have been meaning to do that to mine for a while now.

[western star]

I just finished one. Did everything that was mentioned but used SEM Trim Black from an automotive paint supplier for the grill and trim. It turned out awesome. To tape off the trim around the outside edge I used the 1/8 tape (blue) that the boys use for doing flames. It turns corners like nothing I've ever used and gives you a crisp line with no run over from the paint. Then just use regular tape and paper to cover the outside of what you have taped. I used the Trim Black as it has a low sheme finish. Your grill colour is your choice. Have fun....

[western star]

Oh ya one other thing I did. I masked off the outside trim and sanded it smooth with 400 and then removed all the masking tape and cleaned the surface from dust etc and then masked it off again to paint. The reason I did this is if you don't protect the chrome shell outside of that black trim you will end up scratching the chrome with the sanding and it will look horrible.

[lukecp]

For the grille on my '72 i removed it, cleaned it real good, then spray painted the whole thing flat black (front and back). Then, i masked off all of the horizontial bars and spray painted them with some chrome/silver paint. Looks awesome....kinda like a cross between a custom grille and a stock grille. It dosen't look out of place on the truck, i think GM should have painted them that way.

BTW, i got the idea off of Blue_71....he showed a pic of it and i used his idea