# 68 grill/hideaway doors



## 400fitz (Jul 7, 2010)

Anybody have any tips on paint and prep for a set of 68 grills and hideaway doors. My spare set are in a lot better shape then the ones on the car. They just need prep and paint . My originals are soooo weak and fragile . I need help on type and color of paint and how to mask/prep my NOS replacements. Thanks mucho!


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## Instg8ter (Sep 28, 2010)

just looking at the cover of my resto guide at a 68' looks like you will be painting the background in 30 degree black and the ribs will be argent silver, i would spray the whole thing silver and then get striping tape to match the rib size and mask then spray the black background. I did my 66 gto's for the tempest and they came out very nice, just re-did the tempest ones last night but they are just silver. Of course you will want to wash and scrub them with dawn detergent and water with a bristle brush to get in all the recesses. a light coat of primer or adhesion promoter after drying then paint and mask, allow the silver to dry at least 24 hrs before you mask it for the black. Eastwood will have all the supplies you need. i used rustolium satin black and metallic silver with the tricycle on the front....not original but close enough in my book cheaper and available at HD. you can see the gto ones re-finished in my avatar.


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## 400fitz (Jul 7, 2010)

Thanks much for taking the time to write a well thought out plan. I had some questions on color and what to mask and paint first,but you sent me in the right direction. I will post a pic when I finish. Good tip on the using the dawn detergent


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## Instg8ter (Sep 28, 2010)

no problem 400 the 66' has a lot of ribbing on it, my console was a similar process but i used a liquid mask/Frisket with a foam roller to cover the chrome before spraying the black background then when the black dried over night washed it and the frisket rubs off like rubber cement leaving the ribs unpainted, do 3 light even coats. If you can find a body shop supply they will have the masking tape in the thinner sizes for the ribs......take some pics before and after...:cheers



















passenger grill is factory painted argent silver, drivers side is the Rustolium silver restored original GTO grille, the hinges are Platinum silver which looks just like bare blasted steel and comes in handy for stuff that would have been unfinished from the factory, but you want protected.


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## 400fitz (Jul 7, 2010)

I decided to try the Rustoleum route and picked up the satin black and metallic silver today at HD with primer. I had no luck finding tape with a real thin width. I am going to attempt this project this week and post some pics. I have to take my time because I have a bad habit of using too much paint. Thanks Instg8er for the tips!


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## 68greengoat (Sep 15, 2005)

400fitz said:


> I decided to try the Rustoleum route and picked up the satin black and metallic silver today at HD with primer. *I had no luck finding tape with a real thin width.* I am going to attempt this project this week and post some pics. I have to take my time because I have a bad habit of using too much paint. Thanks Instg8er for the tips!


Find a good R/C hobby store. They should have it. I found some at a fairly small store....


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## jetstang (Nov 5, 2008)

g8ter, I have the same center console and need to redo it. How did you get the liquid mask just on top and not have it run into the seams? Or did you buff out the stainless to remove the excess paint. BTW, console looks great.


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## tekheavy (Nov 15, 2010)

400fitz said:


> I decided to try the Rustoleum route and picked up the satin black and metallic silver today at HD with primer. I had no luck finding tape with a real thin width. I am going to attempt this project this week and post some pics. I have to take my time because I have a bad habit of using too much paint. Thanks Instg8er for the tips!


How did grilles come out? I plan on doing this myself. May also take the Rustoleum route.


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## 400fitz (Jul 7, 2010)

I did a poor job of masking the headlight doors. I had to lightly sand off the paint and in the process of preparing for a re-do. Take your time masking or you will be sorry. Very happy with the Rustoleum paint but unhappy the way I masked them off. I hope to attempt them again this week. Good luck and keep me updated.


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## tekheavy (Nov 15, 2010)

400fitz said:


> I did a poor job of masking the headlight doors. I had to lightly sand off the paint and in the process of preparing for a re-do. Take your time masking or you will be sorry. Very happy with the Rustoleum paint but unhappy the way I masked them off. I hope to attempt them again this week. Good luck and keep me updated.


Would you happen to have the paint codes off the Rustoleum cans?


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## Instg8ter (Sep 28, 2010)

hey Jet, just buy a stamp pad roller (hard rubber) from staples or office max it will put a thin coat of the liquid mask on w/o it running in the groves and if yo miss a little it will hand buff off.

silver - 7271 silver metalic 
black - 7777 satin black
metal look (hinges) - 7519 stainless steel (this looks nice on everything that was raw casting/stamping from the factory and will keep it protected)

know these are not "correct", but have you seen eastwoods paint prices?


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## 400fitz (Jul 7, 2010)

I decided not to paint the fins argent due to a couple of failed attempts of masking. What do you think? Kinda looks good I think. Not factory correct but most of the car is not. Time to do the other side.


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## Instg8ter (Sep 28, 2010)

lookin good fitz, when they get on the car the grill part will be blacked out by radiator support. yeah those look like they would be fun to mask...lol. keep up the good work.


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## tekheavy (Nov 15, 2010)

I sprayed my grilles black first. Then I'm going to wait 72 hours and then mask it off to paint the fins argent silver. I figured that would be a little easier then having to mask off the fins. I went with a flat black as opposed to a satin black. I didn't like the lustre of the satin.


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## 400fitz (Jul 7, 2010)

I like the flat black. Looking good. I still have to complete the other side. A little short on spare time this week.


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## 68GTO4004Spd (Jun 19, 2008)

TEK that's what I did, satin black first then masked for silver.


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## tekheavy (Nov 15, 2010)

68GTO4004Spd said:


> TEK that's what I did, satin black first then masked for silver.


Looks great. 

Hard to tell from your pic, but did you paint the entire fin silver or just the leading edge? I think having the back edges black would entail an awful lot of masking off.


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## 68GTO4004Spd (Jun 19, 2008)

I masked all around the center parts between ribbs and painted the entire fin silver, I also left the backside open so I could get the backside of the fins to get better coverage. I can't wait to see them on the car. Here's is another shot, maybe you can see better.


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## tekheavy (Nov 15, 2010)

68GTO4004Spd said:


> I masked all around the center parts between ribbs and painted the entire fin silver, I also left the backside open so I could get the backside of the fins to get better coverage. I can't wait to see them on the car. Here's is another shot, maybe you can see better.


Nice job. 

How long did you wait after you painted the black before you masked off to paint the silver?


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## Instg8ter (Sep 28, 2010)

lookin good guys, dieing to get mine painted so i can put all my freshly restored goodies back on...on a positive not the 463 is ALIVE and running now, what a monster. two weeks and it goes in the paint booth...then re-assembly.

1966 Tempest pictures by instg8ter - Photobucket

Brian


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## 400fitz (Jul 7, 2010)

I waited a good two days to mask over the fresh black with no problems. I believe some guys gave advice on waiting at least 24 hrs. Cant wait to see em done. Hey Instg8ter, saw the video of the 463. Sweet!! You will not need a radio when you have all that sweet music coming from under the hood.


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## Instg8ter (Sep 28, 2010)

thanks Fitz, got it idling nice this evening, have to do some fine tuning but man am i impressed, tweeked it to 4000 a few times tonight and the whole car rocks hard on the brand new HD springs....you can just feel the torque oozing out of these engines may unleash a bit of it on the asphalt of the subdivision this weekend.


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## joedee (Dec 13, 2012)

*what was original*



Instg8ter said:


> just looking at the cover of my resto guide at a 68' looks like you will be painting the background in 30 degree black and the ribs will be argent silver, i would spray the whole thing silver and then get striping tape to match the rib size and mask then spray the black background. I did my 66 gto's for the tempest and they came out very nice, just re-did the tempest ones last night but they are just silver. Of course you will want to wash and scrub them with dawn detergent and water with a bristle brush to get in all the recesses. a light coat of primer or adhesion promoter after drying then paint and mask, allow the silver to dry at least 24 hrs before you mask it for the black. Eastwood will have all the supplies you need. i used rustolium satin black and metallic silver with the tricycle on the front....not original but close enough in my book cheaper and available at HD. you can see the gto ones re-finished in my avatar.


Hi,
Were just the front of the ribs painted silver from the factory or the entire rib on the grill and the headlight doors?

Thank,
Joe


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## klincik1968 (Mar 25, 2013)

*68 Grill Paint*

I know this is a pretty old thread but I used it and I want to thank those who contributed to it. I recently pulled the front bumper on my 68 to restore the grill and hideaway components. This forum was a great source of info. I wanted to post the process and products that I used.

For the grills and headlight doors I removed the chrome trim pieces then washed them all in warm water with Comet cleanser. After that I wet sanded them with Grey Scotchbrite pads to remove any excess grime and rough up the surface.

Prior to painting I repaired a broken chunk of plastic on one of the doors with SEM Bumper adhesive (2 part epoxy) from a local auto paint supply store.

I primed all the plastic with Duplicolor CP199 Adhesion Promoter just prior to painting.

I painted everything black with 2 base coats of Duplicolor DA1603 Semi-Gloss Enamel. I left this to dry for at least 24 hrs.

I then masked the grill vertical ribs with 1/4" pinstripers graphic tape and the remaining outer flanges with blue painters masking tape. 

I masked in between all horizontal ribs on the headlight door covers with a combination of 1/4 and 1/8 graphic tapes. I put no masking on any part of the horizontal ribs. Outer flanges - blue painters tape.

I then sprayed them with 2 coats of Krylon 1403 Dull Aluminum. I tried 5 other silvers from Duplicolor, VHT, and Plastikote. The Krylon 1403 is a dead match for the original gill silver. I purchased it at O'Reilly Auto locally. It wasn't out on the shelf - secret stash in the back I guess. 

I removed all masking tape after the silver had dried. I had some black touch up to do. I used the spray paint sprayed into the cap and a brush. This can be done successfully if you allow the paint to sit for 5-10 min to let the chemicals flash off. The paint is thin so you'll need multiple coats. 

I purchased the "door savers" from Ames which is a lazer cut aluminum strip that sits around the outside attach flange of the door cover which tends to be cracked on most cars. 

I also purchased all new chrome trim for the grills and doors from Ames. They fit well but I would suggest doing a little hand contouring before putting them on the plastic parts. The old plastic is delicate and you don't want to break it in the last phase of the process.

If I was starting over, I would have taken the original paint codes from this thread to the local PPG dealer and had them mix small amounts of Argent Silver and 30 deg black and used my spray gun. If you have the capability I would go that route. I didn't try the Eastwood products mainly because I didn't want to wait on the ground shipping.

I've included some pics of the grills just after painting. Hope this helps anyone taking this on.


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## Instg8ter (Sep 28, 2010)

nice work...and attention to detail. This is why when people ask an often repeated question we tell them to search the threads. Most of the time there are detailed descriptions from multiple sources. I am sure your well written instructions will help some others in the future...well done:cheers


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## FlambeauHO (Nov 24, 2011)

Great job!


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