My '68 Charger grille restomod

I've posted this on other forums, and it's really a restomod, so I hope you will forgive my posting it here. I know the site is mostly collectables but there are some details here you might appreciate. While most of the detail is applicable to Chargers, there are some new approaches I took to fixing up the plastic that I think any of you could use.



































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This is what the mounting tabs are supposed to look like. A clip goes through the end and the metal part of the grille screws through these to hold the plastic part in place. I suppose this is to allow the grille to flex a little and not crack where it's mounted. In my case, most of the mounting tabs were cracked or broken right off. I'll show you how I repaired them.



This is the key:





I used JB Weld epoxy-based plastic putty for the repairs.
Quick tip, if you've worked with too much material and it starts to harden before you've used what you've prepped, you can microwave it for a few seconds and gain some extra time.







If you really want to get crazy with strength, you could throw a washer in between the mesh and plastic as a through point for the screw. I didn't do that, however.





File the inside part down so your retaining clip can still slide over.



Grinding and sanding the outer part down. This will get drilled through at the original mounting point for the retaining clip.



Quick jump ahead to the finished product. Obviously, the inner part doesn't show, so I wasn't concerned with extra material.



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For the repair of my mostly intact meshwork:



I built up JB Weld where it wouldn't show on the back side of the grille. I couldn't think of any other way to do it. Any other ideas?



From the front it looks good though:



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So on to the repair of the "horns" on the grill. This part fills in the space between the grill and front bumper. This is what is should look like. I didn't have either side to mock up a part from, so I bought an otherwise useless piece except it did have this horn in perfect shape. Note the little cut out on the lower horizontal. The bumper mount fits under there, I believe.



I made a mirror image piece using mesh and JB Plastic.







I used a lot of measurements and eyeballing it.

















Jumping ahead one more time, this is the finished piece after paint:



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On to the Charger script on the grille.

Mine was in terrible shape.





I bought a reproduction piece that was, well, less than factory perfect.





Just didn't look good. Maybe I'm a perfectionist. So be it.



I sanded down the edges where there was a lot of casting flash. Then paint.





I'm not sure what I will do with the little logo that goes up with the pop up headlight door. I have a friend who teaches CNC at our local community college. I've been talking to him about machining both the Charger script and perhaps a small SRT-10 logo for the door.

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On to the frame and light modifications:

This is the kit I bought to use. BMW halo headlights with HID conversion and LED conversion for the ring light. These fit 89-94 BMW E34/E32 5 and 7 series. The original trim ring is at the top for reference--although the lights are listed as the same size, the new ones are slightly larger and of course deeper.





































Look how nice the end horns turned out. Given that I had no original reference to work from, I think it turned out pretty awesome. I will motorize the doors once I get the car nearer to completion and can figure out how best to mount the motors.

Looks Great!!!

great instructions

That's a great tutorial cop magnet. If you keep that level of perfection up, you car will be a show stopper

Nice work.

Seriously cool CM! Your car is another one I can't wait to see done!

Very nice. I've rebuilt a bunch of plastic grilles over the years. Patience and the right materials, and you can make it stronger than original.

You are a Artist my friend beautiful work.

Looks awesome, great work. I will have to admit though that I did have to hold back some tears as you started to cut the grill support. :icon_puke_l: They make more now though. Cant wait to see the whole car.

liking this ... liking the photo(s) also ...

you ll have to take a final picture installed on the car for US =0)

Nice work CM, turned out great!

I agree, nice patient work my friend. I've been looking at mine for several years now wondering exactly how to reproduce the factory finish of argent/silver on the leading edges of those little fins while leaving the remaining grille unfinished black plastic that it was molded in. I really like the factory look. After I perform the repairs (cracks and broken mounts) using your ideas (Thanx!), I think I will clean and plastic prep the grlle pieces and prime as you did. Then paint everything in silver. At that point I will mask those pesky edges with 3M thin masking tape as well as the larger horn areas and then spray the semi/flat black. Any thoughts or ideas?

Awesome thread and great work CM! Those headlights are gonna be bad@ss, too! All the pics are giving me flashbacks of the hours I spent slaving over my grille last summer. I did much the same as you with the epoxy and JB plastic weld, but my finned section was in pretty bad shape on one side and got quite a transplant









Should probably do a grille thread of my own to get everything in one place instead of scattered all over my buildthread I guess haha

Warhorse said:

I agree, nice patient work my friend. I've been looking at mine for several years now wondering exactly how to reproduce the factory finish of argent/silver on the leading edges of those little fins while leaving the remaining grille unfinished black plastic that it was molded in. I really like the factory look. After I perform the repairs (cracks and broken mounts) using your ideas (Thanx!), I think I will clean and plastic prep the grlle pieces and prime as you did. Then paint everything in silver. At that point I will mask those pesky edges with 3M thin masking tape as well as the larger horn areas and then spray the semi/flat black. Any thoughts or ideas?

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Nothing to it but to do it! Spent a lot of time backmasking those sections, first with 3m fine line to get the edges perfect, then regular frog tape to cover the rest. I hijacked my girlfriend's bathtub and wet sanded all the plastic up to 400 grit before paint, then used Rustoleum "ultra 2x coverage" satin black, and Krylon 1403 "dull aluminum" for the silver. Pretty tedious work but it's worth it when everything comes together :icon_thumleft:







Same treatment on the headlight doors

Mr Speed Freak. Please do add your pics/process for repair of the finned grille. I'm getting ready to do my 68 with some broken fins. I would love to see it.

I wasnt planning on getting to my grille for many months....After looking at this post I just may do it way sooner....Thanks for the awesome writeup!...bookmarking now!

Great post CM! This gives me way more ideas than I probably need and will get me into trouble later. Your fault. Cool stuff! Thanx.

SpeedFreak, you did a great job with what you started with! I was lucky in that most of my fins were in good shape, just the outer plastic edges busted up and the metal rusted to hell (but that's easy with media blasting).

WarHorse, there is literally nothing original on my car, or unmodded. I'd follow SpeedFreak's example on the argent paint.

One last thing, I used Rustoleum flat black on my grille, and others have told me it will fade badly in the sun...so don't use that

wow very good work! no.... I'm inspired.

Cop Magnet said:

SpeedFreak, you did a great job with what you started with! I was lucky in that most of my fins were in good shape, just the outer plastic edges busted up and the metal rusted to hell (but that's easy with media blasting).

WarHorse, there is literally nothing original on my car, or unmodded. I'd follow SpeedFreak's example on the argent paint.

One last thing, I used Rustoleum flat black on my grille, and others have told me it will fade badly in the sun...so don't use that

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Why did you add those new style headlight if they are going to be behind the covers most of the time?