Bigpete123

Alright, the upcoming Vancover/Bellingham/Seattle meet has inspired me to do a little work on my car to get it prettied up!

Zorro was kind enough to do a photoshop of my car will a shaved and color-matched grille:



I want to do all of the work myself, but I'm not experienced at all with body work. I'm generally pretty good working with my hands, but I need help understanding the process of prepping chrome and using rattle cans of primer and color-matched paint. I own a compressor, so I could buy an automotive paint gun if you guys think that's worth it. Lower end ones aren't that expensive really. I also need repaint the filler panels under my headlights- my previous job has chipped off over the last two years, so clearly I need to do a better job this time around.

I want the grille to withstand the elements as much as possible, so the paint has to be applied properly. Everything I've read about body work indicates that 90% of your success is based on the quality of your prep work.

I know chrome isn't suitable to be painted without some prep. I have read about the subject quite a lot online. My research has resulted in the following possibilities:

1. Some people do very basic prep such as using a Scotchbrite pad and Comet cleaner and dulling the chrome. They simply clean it up and prime and paint after getting the surface nice and dull

2. I have heard of others getting the chrome parts sand blasted, although others criticise that method because chrome is very difficult to remove... and therefore sand blasting creates too much heat and can warp the part. Plus it's expensive.

3. Some say the only way to prep chrome for paint is to take it to a chrome shop and have it stripped. I'd like to avoid this because it sounds expensive.

4. Another approach is pure elbow grease- sanding the hell out of the chrome and removing it completely. I have a hard time believe this is totally necessary. I have also heard that if you don't get the chrome off in every single spot, it will flake off over time. So it's either "take it all completely off" or just "scuff the surface".

The next question is about what kind of primer to use and how to apply it. I've heard of "self etching" primers and "high build" primers. Not sure how to choose. Also, do you guys recommend wet sanding between primer coats? What kind of sand paper do you use? What's the technique?

In terms of the top coat, I'm pretty sure I will want to do 4 or 5 coats. Do you need to sand/buff in between those coats?

I will also do a lot of coats of clear, depending on what you guys recommend. I want the paint to look as close to original quality as I can get with rattle cans.

Thanks very much for your help guys. I will post the step-by-step with pics when I get started. I just bought a new grille online so that I can take my time without having to drive aroudn without a grille for a week or two.

Thanks!!

Peter

ZorroAMG

Ok, here's a simple answer. Scuff it/sand it big time, adhesive promoter, primer, paint, lots of clear, THEN 3M film it. I did that to mine back in 2002 when I first had the grille painted and I have YET to have any imperfections.

Prob solved.

190E 16V

I like the LOOK, esp. the black grill insert.

Can't help with technique, I'm afraid.

forcedawd

Pretty good write up here regarding prep work -

http://dieselgiant.com/mercedes_paint_preparation.htm

berti_00

wowwwww thats beautiful

ZorroAMG

Not at all pertaining to the thread, but thanks for the good read!

Bigpete123

looks like I prolly blew it in during the primer stage of my first time painting the filler strips. This guy did a lot of priming/sanding/priming/sanding.

Thx for the link.

Zorro, thanks for the advice. That sounds reasonable.

forcedawd

I wouldn't say that. Pete did mention that he wanted to do the panels under the lights as well.

ZorroAMG

true....

forcedawd

Pete,

I was able to speak to my my neighbor (body man) about your scenario this morning and he recommended the following:


Scuff the frame using a scotchbrite pad.

Wipe down with Prepsol to clean the frame and remove contaminents.

Spray it with 1 coat of etching primer ( asked why only 1 coat and he stated that the etching primer is only effective on bare metal.)
** he mentioned that there are 2 types, one is a premix rattle can while the other recommended version is a 2 part mix **

Follow up with your choice of color and clear coats.


This follows in line with Zorro's technique and he hasnt had any problems.


Hope this helps,

Sam

2PHAST

Been done and covered already

http://500e.2phast.com

You would be better off removing the chrome

Bigpete123

Forcedawd, thanks so much for the info.

Rik, you better bring your 500e to the meet!! Thanks for the link to your site. I appreciate the info. Now that you mention it, I remember reading the grille painting section on your site some time ago.

I guess I will call up a chrome shop to see what they will charge to strip the chrome off of the grille surround and small chrome slats. Do you know what material the grille is made out of? Steel? Aluminum? I guess I could get out a magnet and see for myself.

As for filling the holes, I don't have access to a welder so I think I'll just find some sheet metal of some kind use some JB Weld for the holes.

Bigpete123

Alright I just talked with a chrome plating shop. Without looking at the parts, the shop quoted me minimum of $120, but said it could be as much as $300.

So I'll get a quote from them, but I'm not sure I'm willing to pay $300 for it.

ZorroAMG

Ugh. You don't NEED to. My grille came out flawless.

myfirstbenz

I would keep the star... a benz just doesn't look right without it

rivcal4life

Agreed. Your car will die a fiery death before the chrome underneath chips. Just make sure you sand thoroughly, use an etching primer, and 3M the thing.

2PHAST

Its not that the chrome will chip, but paint and primers have a difficult time adhearing to chrome for any length of time. Proper prep of the surface helps of course, but any experienced painter will say the same thing, eventually, the paint will flake off of a chrome surface.

Given the cost of decroming, you may just need to take the chance. I had parts decromed in the past and a full bumper was only $30 or so, but this was many years ago, plus, the chemicals necessary for this procedure are not liked very much by the EPA, hence why there are not many places anymore that do chroming.

You may just have to bit the bullet and spend the time sanding and using a good quality primer, thats about the best you can do to keep the project cost effective.

Good luck

ZorroAMG

NOT if you 3M the grille. I did it to mine a week after it was painted (scuffed, painted on chrome) and it looks as good as the day it was done.

Bigpete123

Yeah I asked the chrome guy whether it was labor-intensive and he said no... the cost is driven by the price of the chemicals and especially due to hazmat and disposal issues.

I think I'll just do the work myself and follow Mark's advice. I bought a second grille, so if the paint ever starts coming off, I can just install my old one while I figure out what I want to do about it. I have a random oribital sander so sanding will only be a pain in the **** in the spots where the sander won't reach... like that little lip that runs around the inner perimeter of the grill surround. I'll have to do that part by hand.

I also have a benchtop belt sander that I can use for sanding the little strips.

Aight, as soon as I get the grille I'm going to get to work and start posting pics. Thanks for all of the input everyone. Very helpful.

2PHAST

I wouldn't use either of those machines for a project like this, you don't want to create any valley's during sanding. Some 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper and a bucket of water is all you need to get the surface roughed up.

ZorroAMG

I agree with Rik......

Bigpete123

well good, that makes it much easier!

Bigpete123

Well a few updates. Sorry, I was too lazy to take pics.

I scuffed up the chrome via wet sanding as described above. I bought what I thought was a genuine MB grille on ebay and realized immediately that it's aftermarket. It actually worked to my benefit though- I didn't even scuff all that hard, and realized that the chrome was extremely thin. Behind it appeared to be some kind of copper material.

So I just said screw it. I'm sanding the chrome off. So I took out my random orbital sander (against y'alls advice ) and went to town. It took the chrome off like a charm.

I filled the holes by buying a small piece of sheet metal at home depot, trimming two small squares, and affixed them to the back of the grille using JB Weld. Worked great. Then I have filled the holes with Bondo. This is the part that is getting me hung up.

I have redone the bondo 3 times. It's really difficult to sand it down properly because the grill is convex in two dimensions and comes to a subtle "point" where the emblems were. The first two attempts, I sanded down too much and made the bondo flat where the holes were. The problem of course is that it doesn't match the profile of the grille at all and makes the old hole locations obvious.

So this time around I'm going to make a make-shift sanding tool that matches the profile of the grille. I've heard of people using a deck of cards as a sanding block, so I think I'll give that a try.

Hopefully I will be able to get that done quickly and prime and paint next weekend before the meet in bellingham!

I bought color-matched spray paint from Towner Paint... but the last can I got from them was a little too gold and not enough silver. So I have my fingers crossed that it will match. If not, I can always revert to my old grille and have a body shop match it better... I'll post pics soon.

2PHAST

I ran into the same problem, when filling the hole for my emblem. What I do is to use a light misting of black primer over a lighter color base, this allows me to see peaks and valleys when sanding. You probably just need to build it up using some spot putty, then hand sand it so the lines flow.

Even after all the work I did, mine is still not perfect.

Bigpete123

Alright guys thanks for all of your input. I've decided to throw in the towel on this one. As some of you saw at our meet, the color did not turn out as well as I wanted it to, I did a sh*tty job with the bondo, and the aftermarket grille I bought fits quite poorly.

I definitely like the look of the color-matched grille, but not enough to spend the cash having a body shop properly match it. They would probably charge a lot because, although my paint is in good shape for its age, it has surely faded significantly over the last 18 years... so it would take them a long time to match it properly for such a small part.

So I will put the factory grille back on this weekend and throw the other one in the trash. Can somebody tell me how/where to obtain a proper flat badge? I don't want to get another hood star only to have it get ripped off again by some punk.