Grill Repair & Painting

[AMC74Hornet@xxxxxxxxx (Mr. AMC)]

Frank first of all my reply to you about what you said about you
thinking about painting your grill did not appear as I replied directly
from the list. With the body polished out and looking so good it made
other parts of the car look real shabby, like the rubber fillers between
the front and rear bumpers. This was a florida car and they were toast,
warped and the paint peeling. Buy a stroke of luck I bad bought a pickup
bed full of parts and included were the front and rear fillers the same
color as my car. A little compound and some wax they looked like new.
When installed the nice polished front filler made the grill look even
worse. With all the time and money I have spent on the car I couldn't
let it go nor could I just paint everything flat black. I likes the look
of the silver detail. The paint I used on the headlight doors was
Plasticote flat black primer. The silver I used was not a bright silver
but one used on Chevy and Mopar rally wheels made by Eastwood, clear
coated with Eastwoods semi-gloss wheel paint. It gave the appearance of
the original factory silver and made the flat black primer appear
semi-gloss. I also found a few cracks and am repairing them with a 2
part epoxy called the Plastic Welding System and backing up the repairs
with 1/8 plexi-glass for strength.
I don't blame you for not doing your grill if it looks ok. It is a big
tedious, boring,  time consuming job. In my case one I have to do to get
the look that I wanted. Like the window tinting. I went for the lightest
smoke color I could get. Its light enough to not get me stopped by the
man but has just enough tint to compliment the orange paint. I was going
for a subtle look. And after I had them tinted a friend a few days later
said I thought you were going to have the windows tinted, he couldn't
tell. That was just what I wanted. All these details contributing to a
sharp car with out one thing hitting you in the eye and looking like AMC
made it that way. The next project will be a lot less tedious.
Re-striping the stock factory double stripe pin stripe down the side of
the car, idiots polishing the car with machines have worn it off in
spots and blurred the edges of what survived. After that is stripping
and painting the 77 Hornet AMX flairs. These are jobs I am looking
forward to.   I figure I got 2-3 weeks of work 2-3 hours a day to do the
grill. I figure 5-6 days of that time for the paint to cure. Arthritis
in my hands will slow me down too.  
"Doc"