External Black Trim

[david_lall]

The problem with using a restored car is the restoration never ends if the car is to be kept looking restored!

My PI wheel trims are forever in need of black paint touch-up, so I'm in the middle of a new approach. I've just finished the long slow process of scraping off all the old paint from a spare set I had sitting in the garage, the next step will be to paint the depressions with etch primer, something that wasn't originally done by Triumph, and then apply two coats of Rustoleum satin black enamel paint. This will for sure provide a more durable finish!

I also have a spare front grill in the garage - but scraping the paint off that won't be so easy, in fact I think without the help of Nitromors it will be impossible.

The etch primer I use is brush on; it's water based and is so thin that when dry it looks like it's been sprayed on. I know that with the Rustoleum paint and a very high quality brush that I can make the wheel trims as good as if they were sprayed but with the front grill and the hidden recessed angles I wonder if spraying would be a better way forward. So, can anyone share their experiences of rejuvenating a front grill please?

[Alan Chatterton]

Luckily, my front grill cleaned up ok,...... but could do with a better job.

I was contemplating masking up the polished bits, and having it powder coated.

Failing that, NOS ones do come up occasionally.

[david_lall]

One of mine was nos Alan, so I'm not very interested in another one - the original grills were not etched primed and the paint was very thin. Even though I try to keep a 4 to 8 second gap from cars I follow the grill still gets chipped very easily - so I will be re-painting mine, just wondering if anyone's got any experience of the best approach.

[Steve G]

I had my grill lightly blasted, etched and then painted and it's lasted well. I decided to paint the headlamp rims black as well. My thinking behind this was that there wouldn't be any bare alloy to start corroding.

Were the grills anodised before paining ? Mine was a plain 2000 one and wasn't in bad condition apart from various stone chips.

I fitted 14" Stag trims on my car and rather than paint them I got some thin self adhesive vinyl and cut it to fit in the bottom of the depression. I wonder if modern vinyl used for wrapping vans etc could be used.

[murcod]

I redid my grille a while back. From memory I smoothed out the bigger chips with wet and dry, then throuroughly cleaned it all. I taped up the headlight cutouts and then sprayed it. After spraying I then sanded back the front edges of the fins to restore the shiny leading edge. It came up well IMHO, but my PI is hardly concourse condition.

[englishbull]

An idea that I contemplating is Vinyl wrapping..................

I am going to get a badge tried out as they do the chrome effect and even if this lasts for a few years it will be cheaper than re chrome.........