Painting grill letters ..the easy way!

[wayno]

Excellent... will put this to use shortly and maybe by summer I can participate in a FEF post lol

[Rayo]

someone give that man a BEER!!!!!!!!!!!!

[OldGMJon]

You're the man OEM...what a wealth of Chevy Truck knowledge. Just what my grill needs as it looks too dark. I wonder if I can return my stick'um letters...

[Gooker928]

Will be doing this shortly thanks...

[oldies1938]

thanks for the info will be doing this soon

[Born Lucky]

Nice..best way to paint most recess areas.

[Original60Apache]

Cool trick!! I learned it with my shift knob numbers.

[WOLFMANmike]

Originally Posted by steveb64

Excellent, that grill looks great.

I did this very technique on my sail panels, works great there too.

Can we see a write up on your sail panels ? And how they came out B4 and after?

[forestb]

will this work with a chrome grill and if so what paint should I use and what type of paint thinner.

[oem4me]

Originally Posted by forestb

will this work with a chrome grill and if so what paint should I use and what type of paint thinner.

It should work exactly the same way. New chrome on a steel grill will be a bit slicker than the factory aluminum, so it might tend to flake off easier when dry. Make sure your grill is 100% clean before painting, and use a high solids paint for best results. If you use the same paint/thinner that I did, you should be ok.

[forestb]

Sorry for my ignorance but what is high solids paint?

[oem4me]

Originally Posted by forestb

Sorry for my ignorance but what is high solids paint?

High solids means that by comparison, there's more paint/pigment, less solvent in the can. High solids paint will require fewer passes to cover well. Some paints nowadays are so watered down they take many coats to build a film, and also tend to fisheye more.
I think the pigment to solvent ratio (like ingredients) used to be printed somewhere on every can, but I just checked a couple newer cans and that info wasn't on there. Hmmm.
Just use the Duplicolor stuff I did, and you'll be fine. It's sold at local auto parts stores.

[northern 85]

Great info thanks!!!

[LT1 Burb]

I have an NOS aluminum grill, the letters are not painted but have always been curious if they should be.

[LostMy65]

Originally Posted by LT1 Burb

I have an NOS aluminum grill, the letters are not painted but have always been curious if they should be.

Did you ever find an answer?
I have a beautiful aluminum grill that doesn't appear to have ever had painted letters.

[LostMy65]

Here is a NOS posted by GMCNUT:
No painted letters

[hank scorpio]

Originally Posted by pimpston65

darn my grill is painted, what is a good solvent to remove the excess without lifting the main body paint?

I know this is old but:

If you can't use solvent (ie you have a body color painted grill) you can either build up a bunch of wax on the area's you don't want to paint (build many coats but don't buff it off). Do the paint method the same way, the overspray will stick to the wax, not the clearcoat, buff excess paint away.

Vasoline works damn well too.

I know that's an odd trick but it's a work around.

Another method is go to Staples and get clear window cling. Apply over the area, draw the letter outlines with a sharpie ("trace them"). Remove cling, cut out, reapply, you have a stencil. (This with wax is a good combo too).

[Chun-K]

This is going to come in handy when I'm ready to do it. Thanks!

[akqj9]

You can wear tight rubber gloves before you wrap your finger in t-shirt scraps to keep the paint thinner off your skin.

[EdwardSams]

got to V - will finish the rest next weekend.

Your technique worked well - thanks!

How has yours held up all these years later?

[rpmerf]

I want to try this on my 70 this year. The grill looks too bare without those letters.

[rpmerf]

EdwardSams - Are you planning on painting the lines at the top and bottom also? Same way? I'd love to see results when you are done.

[oem4me]

Like others have posted, this technique is useful for lots of trim details. Sail panels should be easy. A bunch of years ago, I re-did some rocker trim on a '63 Corvette using this method. That Corvette trim piece has straight flutes in it which are almost exactly like our sail panels, but it's four or five long feet of continuous lines. Any waves show up terribly. I think it was my first effort with this, and they came out perfect. Kinda blew me away and sold me on the technique.
Included is a pic of some Vette rocker trim, not mine.

[Clyde65]

Here is my grill letters, I used this post to do it.

[EdwardSams]

Originally Posted by rpmerf

EdwardSams - Are you planning on painting the lines at the top and bottom also? Same way? I'd love to see results when you are done.

I actually hadn’t considered it until you asked. Ill definitely post pix if I give it a shot.