Top of Grille Question

[1970mcss]

My car came with a lot of parts painted black. My question, is the top of the grille (under the hood) painted black or should it be chrome??

 

[Michael Boyte]

Chrome from the factory.

It's your call, whatever you think would look the best. I have seen it painted black and I think that it looks nice both ways.

[1970mcss]

That's what I thought, looks like a little stripper in my future, thanks 

[stangeba]

My 71 does NOT have black paint on any of the grill areas.

I just went out and took this picture of my (under hood) grill view.

I assume your's is painted black in this area shown in this picture.

Bruce

 

[Michael Boyte]

That's what I thought, looks like a little stripper in my future,

That could be a lot of fun!!!

Just sayin....

[1970mcss]

Yes Bruce, mine is all painted black. I'm going to detail the grille, horns and latch. The prior owners liked black paint and didn't do that nice of a job. Is yours painted silver or chrome?

[stangeba]

This is how it came from the factory in 71. This is a replace grill after I crashed my 71 sometime in 1972. I really don't know if it is over spray from the "silver" paint look, found on all the non-chrome look areas or just how poor chrome looks when the base metal is NOT polished prior to the chrome process.

Good luck,

Bruce

[1970mcss]

I'm going to remove the black paint and see how it looks, then decide. I like the look of yours Bruce. thanks

[Leghome]

My 72's grill looks very similar to Bruce's 

[MCfan]

Paul,

 

Bumper Chrome by Plasti-Kote will make it pop.

 

[1970mcss]

Dennis, that looks great, did you repaint the entire grille??

[Leghome]

I used that chrome paint on my Monte pull behind and it did not shine as good after the clear coat, turned kind of grayish solver.

[MCfan]

Dennis, that looks great, did you repaint the entire grille??

 

Yes, Paul, here's a LINK to the photo journal I made of refurbishing a '70 grill. 

 

The key to this approach is careful and complete masking of the chrome edges on the front of the grill.  Once that job is done, I just sprayed black on the front and bumper chrome on the back and edges.  I've done three '70 grills this way and they all came out great.  Of course, I was fortunate to have three grills with virtually no chrome pitting on the front so I simply polished that with chrome polish.

 

By spraying the back from all four directions all of the sides of the egg crate cells get a brilliant finish that is most obvious from a side view as shown in the photos below.

 

[Palmbchmonte]

Thanks for sharing the pics. Grille looks great. While I was there I looked your mc brake replacement. Very nice the way you write up the descriptions for the pics.

[1970mcss]

Dennis, thanks for the write up, I re-finished the steering column last night, the grille and cowl area is my next project. 

[Jared Richey]

Supposed to be the same color as the slots in the grill ...Silver

[1970mcss]

Jared, I did end up painting the back side of the grille silver. I'm going to remove the tape tonight...

[lastss]

I have a couple of NOS grills and they are Argent silver in that area.