green28

iTrader: (8)

Didn't come up with much in the search, but was wondering if anyone knows about how much a body shop would charge to fill and smooth the holes after you pull the stock grille. Or if there is a how to on how to do it yourself if I get brave enough to try some bodywork on my own.

crimson_bird

iTrader: (4)

its not that its hard/expensive to fill the holes. the problem is that once you do it you have to get the whole front bumper repainted to cover the fills and have it all match. which will turn that little job into a several hundred dollar job.

so that is only something you should look into if 1) you feel like paying that much or 2) if you are already going to be getting your car painted anyways.

homerunhtr21

iTrader: (18)

For a body man it shouldnt be hard at all to fill the holes. Just make sure you take it to someone who knows what they are doing and not someone who just throws bondo in the holes and says they are done. You need a flexible body filler that can be used to fill them in. It should be around $100 to gett all the holes filled in and ready to paint + about $250 to repaint the bumper depending on which shop you go to.

green28

iTrader: (8)

The only reason I was wondering is that I just bought a black powdercoated grille and was wondering if I should paint the area behind it black. Then I got to thinking might as well fill in the holes. Car is put away for the winter, but when I get it back out in the spring I might just put on the grille for a while and then decide later if I don't like the holes to do something about it, or if I want to paint behind the grille black.

MATTKO91Z

iTrader: (1)

I am in the process of painting my whole car. What would I use to fill the holes myself?

Since the bumper is very flexible, I feel like body putty would just flex and crack. Any input would be appreciated.

starfishy

I had it done but I dont know how much the bumper place would have charged for filling the holes alone. I paid 250 to the bumper place to have a crack fixed (stupid idiot tow truck driver backed into me and he wasnt even trying to tow me, but at least their insurance paid) and the holes filled and another 400 to have the bumper painted (stupid expensive california body shops).

Opher

To fill the holes its pretty straight forward. Most of the big brands sell 2 part semi rigid bumper repair material (3M, Norton, Fusor, duramix,etc). Thats what you want to use. Depending on the size of the hole you may want to use some sort of backing material to suport it (foil tape usually works well) You can finish it off with a bit of glaze, its not going to hurt it, its not going to crack out of it unless you really blast the front nose. I personally like to use Keystone HydroFlex primer on bumpers, is waterbased and typically does not lift or react with the plastics.

Prep for paint as usual and let it rip.

If you're debating about blacking out the area, you can probally get away without having the clear the whole bumper. The trick to no clear line is in the way you mask it.

MATTKO91Z

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the quick and straight forward answer. I will look for the products today.

chaman

iTrader: (5)

Once you do it post pics of your work. I like when people attempt things by themselves! I have done some body work of my own and even painted a whole car in my teenage years with my old man. Dont mind "Mr Bodyman", just ignoring him will suffice If you mind him too much he will show you his state of the art crap car pics and that is something hard to look at! LOL!!

MATTKO91Z

iTrader: (1)

Ha thanks Chaman! I'm pretty lucky also. My dad and I painted my third gen Camaro and now we're painting my fourth gen. Painting the 4th gen has even got him considering painting his 69 chevelle again. I love these projects. I sure will post pics when I'm done. This is what LS1tech is intended for, not cutting people down.

MATTKO91Z

iTrader: (1)

Here is a before picture.



I was also thinking about doing a stripe down the side. My dad mocked it up and I cant tell if I like it or not. Ive never really seen it before. Since I am putting an SS spoiler on I think the way the rear swoops up would look cool. Obviously the stripe would be black, either semi-gloss or gloss. Opinions??

98LSI

iTrader: (1)

i think the stripe looks sick, maybe in a black i have been playing around with House of Kolor metallic pearl additives (would look sick in the clear) and towards the rear, start breaking it apart i forget what car does that challenger or one of dodge's many alike cars. also if you did it in a semi gloss it would give it that old appeal, but with a nice glossy clear, and that metallic additive would definentally give it a "one off" look which i LOVE lol, but it's your car, do what you love.

chaman

iTrader: (5)

I think it looks great and I have never seen it before. How about doing it in satin black?? That along with a whistler mod would wake up that thing!

Patrick G

iTrader: (14)

bdyman, this is the second time you've been warned about cooling the attitude.

I've seen your comments from the start of this thread and how you conduct yourself in other threads. Your skin is way too thin. You let little off-handed comments boil your blood and it turns a tech thread into garbage.

If there is one more bad report about your site behavior, we will have no choice but to suspend your account.