Saving a 76/77 F body grille

[slant6billy]

We did some junk'n while grabbing the black 79 RR:

 

[old yellow 78]

Looks like fun! It's been quite a while since I've seen any F, M, or J's in a yard. I really like to see the parts saved.

 

[Aspen500]

S

Looks like fun! It's been quite a while since I've seen any F, M, or J's in a yard. I really like to see the parts saved.

Ditto. It's got to be at least 25 years since I've seen even the grisly remains of an F/J body in a junkyard and 20 since seeing an M body.

 

[slant6billy]

Already on the workbench attached to the grille jig.

 

[slant6billy]

That's my Kevin Bacon voice impersonation

 

[Gator]

Do you sleep bill or do you dream about mopars.its a disease

 

[slant6billy]

I'll sleep when I'm dead. There is mopars to be gett'n wrench'n!

 

[volare 77]

You may have mentioned before but what do you use for glue??

 

[Gator]

I believe its acetone and shavings from old broken grilles

 

[volare 77]

maybe i did something wrong but when I tried that, the glue (melted shavings) never got hard like originally. I was kinda soft and flexible.

 

[Oldiron440]

3M has a two part epoxy that's great for that type of work, rigid plastic repair, it's for gluing corvettes and snowmobile hoods together.

 

[slant6billy]

The old grilles have a consistency of foam when they get really tired and sun baked. The Acetone absorbs into the pores of the foam. You get like a grey watery sludge. it needs to dissolve over several minutes. I used scotch tape to hold the pieces and hold the grey solution like gravy on mashed potatoes. The tape dissolves and helps hold the piece. It takes some trial and error. PVC pipe cleaner/ primer solution helps too if you mix some in the grey sludge. Check out more from Gators last year when we did 3 grilles: