1970 Grill Paint Technique

[Tom L.]

My front and side grills are out for chrome now. I'm really not looking forward to masking off two hundred little boxes of 1/8" tall chrome lines so I can paint the grills.

Has someone come up with a plastic masking unit that clips over the chrome part to mask it off? I would imagine that there was some type of masking unit that was placed over top of the grills at the factory before paint. I'm hoping that someone took that design and started making them.

Alternatively, does someone have a technique for masking these that is more efficient than the one at a time method?

As always, thanks.

[Pat M.]

Re: 1970 Grill Paint Technique

Hi Tom. I've been told that some people simply press continuous pieces of tape to each up-and-down line of chrome on the front, and then spray the grille from the back. Supposedly this eliminates the need to perfectly mask the front of each square, and afterwards you can remove any minor overspray with lacquer thinner.

Good Luck

[John L.]

Re: 1970 Grill Paint Technique

Tom,
If were lucky we may hear from Dick Whittington, I'm confident he has done this several times and he may know of a better way. I have a 71 thats going to be painted soon and I would also like to know if there's a quicker way to do this.

[Alan S.]

Re: 1970 Grill Paint Technique

Tom,
Some people have used a single edge razor blade or x-acto knife to 'slice' the paint off the raised surfaces that should show chrome. This is best done soon after painting, the paint comes off in flexible, soft, long threads and leaves a very sharp, clean edge. It's really pretty easy after a little practice.
Regards,
Alan

[Kenneth T.]

Re: 1970 Grill Paint Technique

Tom,
Some people have used a single edge razor blade or x-acto knife to 'slice' the paint off the raised surfaces that should show chrome. This is best done soon after painting, the paint comes off in flexible, soft, long threads and leaves a very sharp, clean edge. It's really pretty easy after a little practice.
Regards,
Alan

I did my 71 the same way, turned out great!

[Tom L.]

Thanks guys!

Looks like there's no easy way to do this.

[Kevin G.]

Re: 1970 Grill Paint Technique

Tom, Just painted a set, it wasn't that bad. I cut masking tape into 1/2" strips as long as the grill horizonally and vertically, then taped off the horizonal bars and trimmed. Then the verticals, masked and trimmed. Painted them on both sides due to the angle, using a sharp blade, I ran around the edges then removed the tape. The job went much quicker then I thought it would, not 200 squares but a dozen or so lines.
Good Luck! Kevin

[Alan S.]

Re: 1970 Grill Paint Technique

Hi Kevin,
I tried your method SEVERAL times and always got too much of a paint build-up between the grill and tape, which I couldn't get rid of without screwing up the paint. That's why I went to the 'no tape all razor blade' method. Where were you when I needed you a couple of years ago.
Regards,
Alan

[Patrick H.]

Re: 1970 Grill Paint Technique

I used a method similar to Kevin's as well. It worked fine for me.

Patrick