Engine grille resto

vwbobd · vwbobd's Garage

I finally got around to getting my original grille back the way it should be. It was painted over with flat black by someone in the past, and it looked aweful. It was not too warped and bent up but the black was ugly. This is from my 71t project targa. Please excuse the crappy phone pics.
I started with a dirty, leaf filled, painted, faded grille:
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f186/boba31400/EF0CB252.jpg

started CAREFULLY pulling and prying the slats off. I found that using a small screwdriver was best. I pryed using the previous slats mount tab as a fulcrum. This seemed to make it easy without bending the slats:

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f186/boba31400/87D14744.jpg
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f186/boba31400/B69617F9.jpg
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f186/boba31400/492ADE8F.jpg
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f186/boba31400/A09EA5F4.jpg

I then took the stripped mesh piece and cleaned it and sprayed it with caliper paint (2 coats), then 2 coats of flat black (sorry no pics of this process)

I then took them outside and coated them with paint stripper ($7.00+/- at Advance auto parts)

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f186/boba31400/78927A76.jpg
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f186/boba31400/40849E81.jpg

Let sit for about 10 mins, and used a plastic putty knife and scraped it off. Came off easily. I then had to rinse as per directions on product:

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f186/boba31400/9393D1BA.jpg
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f186/boba31400/987C728E.jpg

I them straightened them as best as I could (this taked patience

) before reinstalling them, Which also takes patience due to having to reposition to get overhang right (Tip: use a ruler first and not after you have "eyeballed" 5 or six on them

Mr9146 · 10-06-2010, 12:17 PM

Just an FYI to add to the above post:

All the horizontal bars are numbered so reassembly is a piece of cake.

kfosburg · kfosburg's Garage

Very nice improvement!

khamul02 · khamul02's Garage

I was able to do the same thing without removing any pieces. I used some type of orange based paint removal stuff bought from walmart. It only removed the paint from the slats not the back netting and braces. I simply sprayed it on and used a toothbrush to take off the slat paint.. Took 30 minutes and looks just like yours

vwbobd · vwbobd's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr9146

Just an FYI to add to the above post:

All the horizontal bars are numbered so reassembly is a piece of cake.

I could find no numbers on mine, I had heard this before but none on any of the slats. I just put #'s on tape and done them one at a time.
What really makes this look so nice is that the mesh is nice and black , was faded before . Like I said I used a high heat black caliper paint as a base on it and then topped it with flat. Nice as new now.

azasadny · azasadny's Garage

Very nice work! Looks great!

sballard · 10-07-2010, 04:46 AM

The grill on my '72 is also flat black. I just assumed that was correct for the year. Does anyone know if this year 911 originally had a chrome grill too? Chrome definitely looks better.

Mr9146 · 10-07-2010, 07:47 AM

The numbers are on the leading face of the grill slats on the passenger side.

They're numbered 1-13 starting from the back window and working toward the license plate.

vwbobd · vwbobd's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr9146

The numbers are on the leading face of the grill slats on the passenger side.

They're numbered 1-13 starting from the back window and working toward the license plate.

Oh, I see them now. tiny but they are there