Painted Grille surround

[TobyArnot]

I finally got around to doing something I've been wanting to do for a long time. I masked and repainted the black horizontal strips on my '70 grille, including the part of the parking lights inline with the strips. Pulled the headlight bezels, buffed off several coats of crappy old paint and repainted them. But the real change I made was painting the outer rim of the grille to body color. Took about a hour and a half of masking, including the front bumper, but I think it turned out well. IMO, It makes the grill stand out more. Opinions?

[kowboy63]

Looks good.

[AirSpeed]

Looks great! Did you use some etching primer?
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[FLDBRED]

Looks good! Do you have a before picture?

[TobyArnot]

I found an old "before" picture and yes, I did scuff and use an etching primer.

[Mister-B]

Originally Posted by TobyArnot

I finally got around to doing something I've been wanting to do for a long time. I masked and repainted the black horizontal strips on my '70 grille, including the part of the parking lights inline with the strips. Pulled the headlight bezels, buffed off several coats of crappy old paint and repainted them. But the real change I made was painting the outer rim of the grille to body color. Took about a hour and a half of masking, including the front bumper, but I think it turned out well. IMO, It makes the grill stand out more. Opinions?

Looking good. What about the original paint that's supposed to be on the sides of the grille around the headlights? It is painted in your first pic, and not in your second. It would help to disguise the 4 rivet heads

Also, have you thought of painting your inner grille dark metallic silver? I've run mine black and then closer to factory, and I prefer the factor look. Makes it have more layers and really POP
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[BigCountryx]

I really like what you did there with body color. It makes the size of the surround look a little smaller, first time I've seen that done. Good job.
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[TobyArnot]

Originally Posted by Mister-B

Looking good. What about the original paint that's supposed to be on the sides of the grille around the headlights? It is painted in your first pic, and not in your second. It would help to disguise the 4 rivet heads

Yea, that area had been "hand painted" and really looked like crap. I stripped all the old crappy paint off and thought I would see how it looks unpainted. I don't like the ratty looking rivets, so I'll likely mask and paint that area, or maybe just replace the rivets with some polished stainless ones.