Grill restore

[jongreve]

The grille on my '76 is in pretty good shape except for the fact that someone has tried to black-out parts of it, and that black paint is wearing/peeling off. Is there a good way to remove the black paint from the grille?

Is the grille chromed, or some kind of polished alloy?

I've tried the 3m paint sanding disc, it removes the paint, but scuffs up the original chrome/polish underneath, and if it is in fact chromed, I worry about the disc removing the chrome all-together.

Is there a good chemical to try here?

[pcoplin]

Should be clear coated aluminum? At least my razor grill is. If so could use aluminum safe paint stripper to strip the entire thing.

[jaber]

They came with those black pinstripes from the factory. I have reaplied them to a couple of mine, I like the way it highlights it.

[serehill]

They came with those black pinstripes from the factory. I have reaplied them to a couple of mine, I like the way it highlights it.

Agree with Jeff.

I've never seen a clear coated one. I have 2 they are just polished aluminum with the blackout highlighting. Buffing it off would be the solution but then you will need to buff the entire grill to match. The did come that way.

[haminawag]

Something you could try is using Naptha, also knon as Ron-sonol Cigarette Lighter fluid for Zippo lighters, use it on a rag, it'll definately get the paint off with a bit of rubbing, but it's very flamable (obviously) and you should use protect your skin cause it'll burn you after a few minutes. Otherwise I agree with the other guys, black paint was used by the factory to highlight the polished aluminum.

Try using Brass-O to polish the aluminum, you can make it gleam like chrome with that stuff.

[jongreve]

I'm not sure if I understand the concept of pinstripe




at a quick glance it appears like it is peeling chrome, upon further inspection it seems to be some kind of black paint that is wearing/peeling away.

if these were never chromed than I should just grind the muck away? Today I tried brake cleaner to no avail, the new CRC formulation is pretty much wuss.

Where were these pinstriped?

[Owatonna]

I haven't tried this yet but I plan to. http://secondchancegarage.com/public/665.cfm

[jaber]

I had not seen one blacked out like yours. The 2 I have are like the pic below, just thin stripes between the holes...

[pcoplin]

Btw, I didn't mean clear coat, I meant anodizing like the bumpers.

Glad they aren't, I have a razor grill I need to polish.

Definitely use some aircraft paint stripper on it, looks painted on.

[haminawag]

Yup, pcoplin's right, anodized aluminum. Any regular paint stripper ought to work, try "strip-eze" from a hardware store.

[CherokeeCraig]

Just an add to this post. I picked up some Cameo cleaner at the grocery store today and brought it home and tried it out on my soon to be on my
Cherokee razor grill. It cleans it up real nice. It's not going to make it new as I'm sure nothing will, but for what it is and what its going on I'm satisfied, and for a couple bucks whatcha got to lose!!