I got me a Comet grill from Tim (mtrhed) yesterday. I traded him my standard Mav hood for it. He's going to cut the front of the hood off and use it to repair a Grabber hood that has rust in the front lip, but is other wise in very nice condition. Tim's a super nice guy. Anyways, I now have a very nice Comet grill to match my hood I got from Pull A Part and the front bumper I got from Dan. I want to paint this grill sort of satin black. What kind of paint should I use? I have not had very good luck painting plastic in the past. It almost always starts flakeing after a few months. I want this to last a while... I'm thinking maybe I should go over it with some very fine sand paper first, then spray a couple of coats of primer on it and then paint it. Seems like this would help the paint stick better? I'm also going to attempt to strip the black paint off the sport lamp bezels. I am going to try to change the wireing and yellow lenses over from the Grabber grill so I still have turn signals and stuff. Thanks..
Krylon fusion satin black, just make sure the surface is CLEAN. used it on all my interior parts, or get bulldog adhesion promoter, and follow the directions. Enjoy shaun
I have painted quite a few grills and never had the paint peel. What I did was wash the grills very carefully with soap and water. After they were dry, I washed them down again with a paint prep cleaner to remove any leftover dirt left in the slats and then sanded the grills with a fine sandpaper ( 320 or finer) making sure I got into all the corners as best as I could. A scuff pad works well for this. Then I cleaned them again with the paint cleaner and sprayed them with Krylon Satin Black or Semi-Flat Black. The sanding part takes the most time, but it will get the paint to stick and not peel off later.
The black grill on my 74 was originally gray ... painted it Rustoleum Satin black last year .. still looks great ..
I used rustoleum satin black too. Great stuff. Like Jean said, wash the crap out of it. Get a stiff tooth brush & get in every opening.
After 3 coats of spray on air craft paint stripper and going over what was left of the black paint with a SOS pad, the sport lamp bezels look like new! I don't know how long that black paint has been on there, but it looks like it effectively "sealed" the chrome on the bezels and preserved it. I'm going to scrub the grill down with some soap and water and use a scotch brite pad to lightly clean it a little more and get any loose crap off. I'll post some pics tomarrow.
I've used the Krylon Fusion satin black many times. As everyone has said, prep - prep - and more prep! Eric J
Ford never painted Maverick grills. They were either molded in black plastic (like the one I have), molded in Gray plastic, or had a plastic chrome plating. If you paint one, use a strong paint (like the Fusion paint, etc.) because sand and rocks will chip and pit it. Never paint a chrome-plated grill. I did many years ago and it was a mistake. You can never get paint to stick to that stuff...
I use Bulldog adhesion promoter and Krylon plastic fusion paint. I spent many hours prepping it. If a stone hits it, it will chip. Nothing you can do except touch it up.
Actually while researching a 1970 Grabber grill part # ... The Ford Parts book only lists one part # for a 1970 Maverick Grill. There is a notation for the grill indicating "Paint to Match" ... not sure if factory 1970 Grabber grills were black ... but replacement ones were more than likely gray painted black by the body shop.
