Grille Hole Plugs
02-19-2011, 08:12 PM
#1
Grille Hole Plugs I took my stock grille off to paint it and while it was off, I noticed the no grille look wasn't too bad, in fact, it's kind of growing on me. I was thinking that if I just make some type of molded plugs and painted them body color, I could go back to the grille look if I changed my mind, rather than permanently filling and painting the bumper cover.
1. Does anyone make what I'm talking about?
2. What type of filler do you think I could use to make a plug but not cure too fast so that I could take it out, trim and paint? I'm thinking I could use some type of "non-stick" spray to keep it from sticking in the holes.
1. Does anyone make what I'm talking about?
2. What type of filler do you think I could use to make a plug but not cure too fast so that I could take it out, trim and paint? I'm thinking I could use some type of "non-stick" spray to keep it from sticking in the holes.
02-20-2011, 01:48 PM
#6
Just for you guys, I went and took/found some pics of what I'm talking about (sorry about the crappy pics):
Here's what the grille looks like removed, with eight holes that look like crap:
What would be cool if someone had something like the Porsche Jack Plugs, but obviously they would have to be a tighter fit, and would need to be able to be painted body color:
Finally, here's a bad pic of my grille painted gloss:
As stated above, I know the BEST way to fill the holes is to permanently fill them but again, this would give you the ability to change back to the stock grille, plus it would be cheaper than filling the holes.
Here's what the grille looks like removed, with eight holes that look like crap:
What would be cool if someone had something like the Porsche Jack Plugs, but obviously they would have to be a tighter fit, and would need to be able to be painted body color:
Finally, here's a bad pic of my grille painted gloss:
As stated above, I know the BEST way to fill the holes is to permanently fill them but again, this would give you the ability to change back to the stock grille, plus it would be cheaper than filling the holes.
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02-20-2011, 02:56 PM
#9
It looks okay from a distance, but there are some "issues" up close.I started off by trying to sand down the grille and then priming it. Big mistake, especially because I used too coarse grit sandpaper. Then I tried to fill in the scratches by using regular primer - again, big mistake; I should have used filler primer. Of course I didn't notice ALL of the scratches until I put the first coat of Fusion on. So I had to sand and prime a bunch of times until it got close to being smooth, but it's definitely not perfect.
If I had done my research on this forum before beginning, I would have known NOT to sand the grille, instead, use filler primer, then sand, then top coat (Fusion really isn't necessary - just a good quality paint), then a couple of coats of clear and it would have come out a LOT better, would have used a lot less paint, and most importantly for a cheap guy like me, would have been a LOT cheaper. Having said that, it was still a lot cheaper than a SLP grille.
The final issue is that there are a lot of posts on how to REMOVE the grille, but nothing about how to REINSTALL the grille. I thought it was going to just snap back in, but to really do it right, you need to take off the bumper cover. I said the hell with that and just used automotive adhesive on the eight mounting points.
Lessons learned.
