Shaved Honda Grill Project with Pics!
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Hey Guys!
Back to a little of the work I do! Thought you might enjoy this!
Here is the grill. $12 off ebay, can’t beat that! That is with shipping!!
So when I got the grill I cleaned it up with soap and water and then used PPG Wax and Grease Remover (Solvent Based) and then PPG Water Based Wax and Grease Remover to remove any contaminants on the grill itself before I sanded them into the finish. Here is how it looked all cleaned up and ready to be worked on! Keep in mind, there obviously use to be a chrome H emblem where the H “shadow” is.
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[IMG]http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e25/nexson1/IMG_7375.jpg[/IMG]Before I can fleece over the H I needed to grind up the plastic. After I dug into the plastic I needed to smooth it over so that I could stretch my material over it evenly. I used a durablock and 60 grit to do this. At this point I sanded about 4-5 inches past either side so that I can eventually feather in the epoxy,body filler and fiberglass that are to
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[IMG]http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e25/nexson1/IMG_7391.jpg[/IMG]come soon.Here is where we start to say goodbye to the H with some good ol’ fleece. Time to CA glue. I take the CA glue and lay it down first and then spray half of the “H” with the activator and then put down the fleece and then stretch the other side of the fleece and spray the other side and stick that down. Once that is down I go from the top and CA glue the fleece into the plastic grill from the top. When the plastic is grinded up like it was with the dremel, the CA glue just bond the fleece to the plastic like no ones business which is very important because plastic bonding in this trait is very difficult. Once it is all bonded it is trimmed up.
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[IMG]http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e25/nexson1/IMG_7402.jpg[/IMG]After it is trimmed up, I go around with the dremel and sand paper and feather in (as much as I can, which isn’t much at this point) where I CA glued in the edge. This step should probably be done after the fleece is resined because you run the risk of hitting the fleece with the dremel and tearing it apart, but if your good with the dremel, then why not knock it out ahead of time 😉
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[IMG]http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e25/nexson1/IMG_7411.jpg[/IMG]So here is the resin part. Pretty straight up. Mix the resin and hardener and soak the resin into the fleece with a paint brush. Once it gets hard, you are ready for the next step. That is it for now. Keep posted to the thread. It will be a cool progress thread.
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[IMG]http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e25/nexson1/IMG_7420.jpg[/IMG]Looking good so far. You’re not worried about adhesion issues with the resin and plastic? Are you going to put some fiberglass mat on top of the fleece? All those little holes look like a nightmare to plastic weld, so the fleece and resin were probably the best route.
CA glue is the answer to all the worries! and Below is a couple more answers to your questions!
Now that the resin is hard, I am able to sand down the edges with the dremel. I went around with the dremel and evened out the fleece with the plastic of the grill. After that was done. I went back to the block and 60 grit and sanded back down the fleece. You will start to see that everything gets blocked out and it is more important to block it out when it is rough so that the following stages go smoother.
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[IMG]http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e25/nexson1/IMG_7434.jpg[/IMG]At this point I opted to use my special epoxy at edges of the fleece and plastic and also over the fleece itself. Since I used thicker fleece, the resin soaked in well and was very strong, so I decided to go over it with my epoxy to fill in the small divots and mend the outer areas into the plastic of the grill. It is two part and sets in 4 minutes and dries within 2 hours for sanding. It is super strong.
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[IMG]http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e25/nexson1/IMG_7445.jpg[/IMG]Here we go again with the block and 60 grit, sanding it all back down again.
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[IMG]http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e25/nexson1/IMG_7449.jpg[/IMG]Time to smooth things out and get ready for paint with some body filler! It is rage Xtreme!
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[IMG]http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e25/nexson1/IMG_7458.jpg[/IMG]You guessed it! 60 grit and block to shape the body filler, but only to shape it!. Once you start to get the spreading lines down, move onto 80 grit which is the green paper! After the 80 grit, you have the red paper which is 120 and then finish before primer with 220, which is the yellow. Now with the areas off to the left and right off where the H use to be, you cant really use the block, so you have to fold your paper in a flat manner to get it to sand even.
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[IMG]http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e25/nexson1/IMG_7476.jpg[/IMG]Some of my favorite primer. Very High build, very expensive, Abvout $22 for a can
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First light coat
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That is it for now!
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[IMG]http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e25/nexson1/IMG_7482.jpg[/IMG]Still a lot of work to be done Thanks for looking!
how much time do you have in to this point?
When you are done with it are you going to put anything over that area or will it the left a clean look?
Not more then one hour’s worth of time. It will be left with a clean look =)
Not more then one hour’s worth of time. It will be left with a clean look =)
So now that the primer has dried I take my durablock and go back over it with 220. I am at the stage now where I will not drop below 220 and probably will not be using 220 past this point as it will be too rough and will put scratches into my primer. So here I am just blocking it out and sanding out defects and getting it even. The primer shows me uneven spots and allows me to take the 220 to even the spots out which works out nicely.
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[IMG]http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e25/nexson1/IMG_7489.jpg[/IMG]Next it is time to clean off the grill and get it ready for its second coat of primer. Since I have been handling the grill a lot since I first washed it, I wanted to take this time to just take some water-based wax and grease remover and remove any contaminants that may have been passed over to the grill. Although these contaminants can be removed right before paint, it doesn’t hurt to remove any now. I use water-based for this because any contaminations on the grill are usually transferred through my skin, in which case water-based wax and grease remover will take off. Before official paint I will follow a much stricter process. At any rate I blow off the grill with compressed air and proceed to spray on the cleaner. I take one prep towel and wipe in one single direction to remove contaminants. It is important to make sure that you do not let the wax and grease remover dry, or else it lets the contaminants go right back onto the panel. When the wax and grease remover is sprayed onto the panel, it lifts the contaminants off the surface and you have a few seconds working time to quickly wipe them off before they go back down onto the grill.
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[IMG]http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e25/nexson1/IMG_7504.jpg[/IMG]Now I am ready for my second shot at primer. For small projects and especially fiberglass, I choose to use rattle cans because to load up a primer gun for multiple applications of primer is too much of a pain when you can get just as good results out of good quality primers in rattle cans. The SEM is the better Primer, however the Duplicolor is very good just as well. I prefer to use the duplicolor in this situation in the process because the build is less and it allows me to spots defects instead of multiple coats of primer. I also like to use two primers because of the color difference. I usually will go back and forth with the colors and use either as a guide coat to the other to spot defects that needed to be filled and sanded, below is the first coat.
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[IMG]http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e25/nexson1/IMG_7512.jpg[/IMG]Here is the 2nd coat.
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[IMG]http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e25/nexson1/IMG_7515.jpg[/IMG]Here is the spot primer I use. With fiberglass, since you are creating the new surface you are going to have a not so perfect surface until you make it perfect. Fine tuning it is key. So at this point I use red spot putty to fill in tiny pin holes in the surface. I simply spread with my index finger. these later will be sanded down and primed over and then you guessed it!
Sanded =)
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[IMG]http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e25/nexson1/IMG_7529.jpg[/IMG]So here we have the sanding of the spot putty. The spot putty gets sanded down with 220. I usually take it all the way down with 220. You will start to see some of the other layers starting to pop through which is quite normal. I am just concerned with working out the kinks for now. After it is sanded down, I follow it up with SEM High build primer in the areas where I have been working. This is a good time to peel back all the paper as well.
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[IMG]http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e25/nexson1/IMG_7544.jpg[/IMG]Now it is time to prep the rest of the grill. Since this is a used grill and the fact it is a grill which means that it was used in the front of the car proves the point that it had small knicks here or there. Those are easily sanded out with 320 grit sand paper. Feather (even out) the primer from the previous working area into the plastic area and sand the rest of the grill with 320. This will knock down any trouble areas and will promote adhesion for the primer to come. After sanding it down, it is a good idea to clean it up again with some water based wax and grease remover.
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[IMG]http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e25/nexson1/IMG_7558.jpg[/IMG]Here is the rill with a coat of Duplicolor primer. After dried, it gets sanded down with soapy water and 400 grit sand paper. Use palm-olive original soap mixed with water in a spray bottle. Rinse thoroughly when finished sanding.
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[IMG]http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e25/nexson1/IMG_7579.jpg[/IMG]Here is the grill with its final coat of primer. which is SEM High build. As you can see, it gets a lot of primer and a lot of sanding from the beginning. Now this gets sanded down with 600 grit. This is all to eliminate sanding scratches when the basecoat is sprayed, to give a superb final product. Each coat of primer builds on the next and fills in finer sanding scratches from the previous!
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[IMG]http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e25/nexson1/IMG_7602.jpg[/IMG]lookin good brother
Brian, a couple thoughts: If you are going to prime the whole piece anyway, don’t worry about masking it all off. Just spray your primer and let the edges naturally blend out. You won’t have that hard edge to worry about. Or, back tape it to get a softer edge.
Instead of using the red putty, get some CA glue and kicker spray to fill in the pinholes. Spread the glue with a spreader, hit with the kicker and you are sanding in 2 seconds.
If you get a chance, try Transtars 2n1 primer. I like it a lot more than the SEM and I think it is cheaper. Give SPI’s reg. 2k a try. At your temps it would be ready to go in 30 min. In the long run it will be cheaper than rattle can because the cans are full of propellents to get the stuff out.
Thanks Jimmo!
AAE, Great advice! As for the paper, I rarely do the paper thing, but i did it just for the purpose that this thread is on other sites that are less educated and I wanted it to look cleaner, otherwise I just spray away lol. Great advice on the CA glue, btw I love that stuff. I actually went back and sanded down the grill and fiberglassed with fiberglass matt. I kept getting fleece fuzzes popping up, so I knew i just needed some glass on there.The grill is already painted as of now.
I am defintely going to check out that primer you suggested, I like to stay with the rattle can for the smaller jobs because of the constant repsraying while fiberglassing, because as we know fiberglass goes from body filler to primer and back over again. Again, good advice!
Here is the paint. Since I am matching the car, I am using Nighthawk Black Pearl B92p. It gets reduced 1:1 which is really nice because I get double the paint. All paint gets strained before it hits the paint cup. By the way, it is PPG Deltron
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[IMG]http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e25/nexson1/IMG_7605.jpg[/IMG]Here is my Devilbiss Sri-W, this is a great gun for the small stuff, even bumpers. I have high flow connectors on this gun with the diaphragm regulator. I will run this gun at 20 PSI.
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[IMG]http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e25/nexson1/IMG_7614-1.jpg[/IMG]I do the basecoat outside so I can see where I have painted. No fancy booth here which is why I have chosen to take the pictures, to show you guys exactly where I do the paint work. I use the sunlight to show me where I still need to cover. I use a homedepot paint stick and an alligator clip to extend the grill out in mid air away from any dust from the stand. Four coats covers the grill well enough for me =)
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[IMG]http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e25/nexson1/IMG_7621-1.jpg[/IMG]Here is my clear coat. I use southern polyurethane’s euro clear. It is some really great stuff! It mixes 4:1:2. Meaning four parts clear, one part hardener, 2 parts reducer. On the cup you will see “4:1:1”. That means you fill the clear up to the first “3” (if you choose to use that much clear, you could flll to 1,2 or 4) then the hardener to the next 3 and then since it is 2 parts reducer, you take the reducer up two 3 levels. Of course this gets strained!
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[IMG]http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e25/nexson1/IMG_7628-1.jpg[/IMG]So here is the grill painted with three coats of clear you saw just before. I waited 8 minutes between coats. It is important to not hammer the clear too much because before you know it you will be looking at a run. The clear was shot out of a Iwata LPH 400 1.4 at exactly 22 psi, 2 and half turns out on the fluid and the fan was wide open.
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[IMG]http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e25/nexson1/IMG_7644-1.jpg[/IMG]cool reflection in the one pic looks like a ghosted in emblem ……….. any of your friends ever say “nex your nuts” nice job B)
NICE WORK and pics
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