painting old aluminum grille

[ftyler]

Anyone here every tried refinishing or painting over their old aluminum grille? I have a 66 chevy short stepside and the prices that they want for reproduction grills are ridiculous (I'm sorry, but two grilles would cost the same as a fully remanufactured long block 350, here in Atlanta).

I was thinking of maybe a light 300-grit sanding, a good tack cloth cleaning, then a good 3 or 4 coats of a good quality chrome spray paint.

Of course this wouldn't last forever, but it just might be a cost effective finish that would last a few years. What do you guys think? I just can't see shelling out 350+shipping for a reproduction grille. They must be made of platinum!

 

[bultaco250]

Sounds like a plan. But, you might want to use a chromate or etching primer before painting. This is a special primer for bonding to bare metals. It doesn't need to be put on real heavy and isn't intended to fill. You can use a standard filler primer over this bonding coat to take care of scratches and defects. Check auto paint supply outlets and try to get recommendations from the counter guy, they usually have this in spray cans and that's all you'll need for the grill and headlight surrounds.
No reason that with the proper prep you shouldn't be able to have a paint job on the aluminum grill that lasts as long as any other part.
You could also check with a friendly neighborhood body shop and they might give some prep recommendations for this type of aluminum trim.

BTW
Most aluminum and chrome paints don't tend to hold up well to handling or cleaning and any type of solvent or gas will ruin them quickly. I'd suggest either matching the body color, using white for that classic look or using a bright silver auto body paint with a clearcoat.
For the small area you'll be painting all of these could be done with spray cans (if you don't have a spray setup). And as long as your going to the effort of refinishing the grill you might as well make it last.

 

[ftyler]

Thanks a lot for your response.

Would you believe that last night I was in K-Mart and found something that might save me a lot of trouble. It's an aluminum polish called "Mothers Mag and Aluminum polish". I read the label and decided to get a container (it was only 3.99). You rub it until it produces a black haze, then buff it off.

I tried a dab of it this morning on a test spot and it looks very promising. No it doesn't look as good as a professionally refinished or reproduction grille, but with my present grill being essentially dent free, I think this stuff may just do the trick. I'm really encouraged at the initial results. By the end of the weekend, I should have the entire grille refinished.

After that, I plan on tackling the 'Custom' aluminum piece on the side of the cab.

For more info on the product, check out the link below.

Thanks again!

http://www.autowerkes.com/mmap.html

 

[bultaco250]

Good to go!
I've done restoration on a few '60s era motorcycles over the years and found the "Flitz", "Semichrome" and "Mothers" all work well to polish aluminum almost to a mirror finish.
I haven't done it on my grill yet but I expect you could save a lot of elbow grease, and get a higher polish, using a cloth buffing wheel (not the lambskin type things) on a variable speed power drill. Just spread a light coat of the polish on the metal and buff away (wear safety glasses, I speak from experience). If you decide to do this, just start off slow to get the feel of what happens when you get the spinning wheel near edges, as sometimes they'll tend to hook and jerk on sharp edges. This will be more of a problem with the speed and power of a right angle grinder, so if you use one of these, I'd take it real easy.
Your grill is pretty thin pressed metal and you wouldn't want to bend or crease it. Maybe you could just use the wheel on the faces, leaving edges to be done by hand. Go slow and it should work well.
Also, I know from motorcycle experience that raw polished aluminum will dull eventually, even if garaged and only driven on sunny days. To preserve it a bit longer, just give it a nice coat of clear lacquer from a can. I'm suggestion lacquer because it is easily strippable and re-coatable if you need to re-polish in a few years or if you get scratches or chips.
Please let me know how it turns out.
Again, Good Luck!