myk r sanchez
Well-Known Member
Hello folks,
I finished painting the grille support and new headlight adjusting hardware is in place, the buckets are painted. The body shop straightened out the support as well as they could, so this is the best I can do with this part for now.
As for my grille, I've polished up the trim and cleaned it up as good as I can. I replaced a lot of missing hardware and repaired some of the cracks. I do have some questions though:
First of all, on the passenger side the top part of the grille's plastic has sunken right in the middle. The grille has been in the car for at least twenty six years, so I don't see how that could've happened unless it was like that before I bought the car in '94. Is there a way that I could straighten that out? I was thinking low heat applied to the area and trying to gently push it back up? If I can't straighten it out, I went ahead and cheated a little by moving the grille trim down and as straight as possible to give the optical illusion of the grille being more straight than it actually is.
The two left-most plastic brackets, on top and below, that help to secure the grille to the support are broken off. So, I heard about JB's plastic putty and thought that I could use that to reshape the brackets. Now that I think about it, I should've consulted with you guys before I went ahead with the putty. Do you guys have any experience with this putty and think it will hold? If not, what are some of the ways that have been used to repair these brackets?
I bought a kit that's supposed to have all of the hardware necessary to bolt the grille to the support. Parts group #1 and#4 look easy enough; it's the J-nuts and the bolts that bolt the grille to the support and the hardware that's used throughout the grille itself. Group #2 I'm not too sure about. There are two types of spacers, ten of each, twenty in total. How do the spacers work? I wish I could remember how they looked on the car before I removed the grille but the car had maybe two or three of them in total and they crumbled into dust when I pulled the assembly out. Group #3 is labeled "grille top and bottom" and I just don't understand what that means, because the screws don't fit into the J-nuts.
Finally, I test-fitted the grille to the support after I got the support back from the body shop and...it's a tight fit. The issue I have with this, is that it's going to be a bear to get those J-nuts back on to the grille AND shoehorn the grille back into the support. Is this normal? Is it supposed to be this snug of a fit? Thanks for reading all of this guys, I look forward to your input and direction. Hopefully I can get the car back on the road with your help...
I finished painting the grille support and new headlight adjusting hardware is in place, the buckets are painted. The body shop straightened out the support as well as they could, so this is the best I can do with this part for now.
As for my grille, I've polished up the trim and cleaned it up as good as I can. I replaced a lot of missing hardware and repaired some of the cracks. I do have some questions though:
First of all, on the passenger side the top part of the grille's plastic has sunken right in the middle. The grille has been in the car for at least twenty six years, so I don't see how that could've happened unless it was like that before I bought the car in '94. Is there a way that I could straighten that out? I was thinking low heat applied to the area and trying to gently push it back up? If I can't straighten it out, I went ahead and cheated a little by moving the grille trim down and as straight as possible to give the optical illusion of the grille being more straight than it actually is.
The two left-most plastic brackets, on top and below, that help to secure the grille to the support are broken off. So, I heard about JB's plastic putty and thought that I could use that to reshape the brackets. Now that I think about it, I should've consulted with you guys before I went ahead with the putty. Do you guys have any experience with this putty and think it will hold? If not, what are some of the ways that have been used to repair these brackets?
I bought a kit that's supposed to have all of the hardware necessary to bolt the grille to the support. Parts group #1 and#4 look easy enough; it's the J-nuts and the bolts that bolt the grille to the support and the hardware that's used throughout the grille itself. Group #2 I'm not too sure about. There are two types of spacers, ten of each, twenty in total. How do the spacers work? I wish I could remember how they looked on the car before I removed the grille but the car had maybe two or three of them in total and they crumbled into dust when I pulled the assembly out. Group #3 is labeled "grille top and bottom" and I just don't understand what that means, because the screws don't fit into the J-nuts.
Finally, I test-fitted the grille to the support after I got the support back from the body shop and...it's a tight fit. The issue I have with this, is that it's going to be a bear to get those J-nuts back on to the grille AND shoehorn the grille back into the support. Is this normal? Is it supposed to be this snug of a fit? Thanks for reading all of this guys, I look forward to your input and direction. Hopefully I can get the car back on the road with your help...