Interior Exterior
Q:
The dull plastic grills on the Elise always bothered me. So, I repainted and clear coated the grills to make them a bit more presentable.
Here is before:
Here is after:
A:
Great job Phil! What base/clear did you use? Were the grilles easy to remove or did you just mask off the surrounding bodywork?
BTW, you're car looks fabulous Is that Chilli Red?
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Looks good! Especially curious as to how you got the rear grilles off the trunk lid. Those buggars are glued on and a bitch to get at.
Al B.
A:
How did you get the driver's side oil cooler grill off? Thanks.
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5 dollars worth of Krylon Fusion spray paint, no clear, two years later.
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That Krylon Fusion is really great stuff for plastics. How do you get the engine grill vents off?
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That looks really good...great job! Do you have any pictures in the daylight, comparable to the before shots?
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That looks really good...great job! Do you have any pictures in the daylight, comparable to the before shots?
Here you go...
Thanks for everyone's comments. It makes the effort very worthwhile. Here's a link to remove the grills:http://www.sandsmuseum.com/cars/elis...orgrilles.html
The engine lid grill/louveres are fairly easy to remove if you let the car sit out under a hot sun for a few hours. You unscrew some screws (uses a torx bit) and use an old plastic spatula to seperate it from the double-sided tape. Don't forget to protect the paint w/ painter's tape while using the spatula.
The driver's side grill is removed by taking out the snorkel of the air intake.
I used Krylon fusion and several coats of clear to make it shine.
BTW, the car color is canyon red. It is difficult to capture in pics the nuances of canyon red vs. chili red. I'll try to meet up w/ a chili red owner and take some pics for comparison.
A:
How did you get the driver's side oil cooler grill off? Thanks.
I didn't even bother removing the grills in front of the oil coolers - too much work involved. I just masked everything off very carefully and painted it.
A:
I painted my engine cover grills differently. I removed the engine cover, and masked the yellow paint. I did not mask the bright yellow *past* the grill inwards. This took some brushing. Now when you look at the car from the rear the view through the grill is all black. This issue is not as bothersome with the darker car colors.
A:
See how the grill looks black? With no yellow visible past it? That's cuz the yellow was painted black past the grill. The visible inner rim and especially rearmost edge of the larger rear grill openings in the engine cover are most affected.
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Here is after:
Great look and good photography!
Is this paint durable? I remember once painting the grill on an old Vdub Scirocco, and having it all chip off 3 months later. Prep was perfect (I worked in a body shop at 16) paint just couldn't hang with all the blasting it takes.
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Pictures looks great guys. This is now on my to-do list. Can you provide estimates on how long it took to complete? Thanks!
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Here is a glimpse of the view-thru-the-grill issue I brought up...see how you can see the yellow engine cover through this car's engine cover grille? That is EZ to rectify if you don't care for that look.
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Pictures looks great guys. This is now on my to-do list. Can you provide estimates on how long it took to complete? Thanks!
It could be done in one day if you use a heat gun to soften the adhesive in the double-sided tape. I'm too inexperienced to use a heat gun near fiberglass, so it took the first afternoon for the sun to heat things up. After that it is just: unbolt/unscrew, clean, spray, dry, re-install. The Krylon Fusion dries fairly fast. So depending on how many coats you want, the spray & dry part may be about 1-2hrs.
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Dayum.....those are some tight grills.
John
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5 dollars worth of Krylon Fusion spray paint, no clear, two years later.
And the tin foil hat is to keep the CIA from reading your mind ?
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Pictures looks great guys. This is now on my to-do list. Can you provide estimates on how long it took to complete? Thanks!
Most of the time for me was for blue tape masking efforts. I removed the front grill, radiator exit grills and engine cover, the latter was masked . I brush painted the oil cover grills. The side grills behind the doors were also masking jobs. About 2-3 hours. The Krylon fusion dries quickly. I did it outdoors on a clear low-wind day.