Nashville TJ's Build - Continued

This afternoon I disassembled the grille and cleaned it up. Then, heeding advice received via PM from @AndyG, I chucked a #6 Course Rubber Duck into my drill and went to work on the surface rust.

View attachment 425613

I was also able to get out the slight dent on the lower left side. The reflection on the pic makes it look a bit wrinkled, but in person it's pretty flat, and now unnoticeable.

The back turned out well also, and I was able to get the surface rust off of the inside. With some paint I think I'll be happy with it.

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Next, I'll poke some holes for the LED turn signals and it should be ready for paint in the back, and paint correction in the front.

Told ya so :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO:
 
First up today was poking a couple of holes in the grille for my LED flashers / running lights. A little tape, a little measurin', and a 3 1/8" hole saw did the trick.

Jeep - Moab repair 2 - 5-10-2023 (5).JPG


Jeep - Moab repair 2 - 5-10-2023 (7).JPG


Jeep - Moab repair 2 - 5-10-2023 (11).JPG
 
which lights and grommets are you using in there?

It's been so long since I originally installed these I don't recall specifically, but I think I picked them up at Tractor Supply. They are a single wire circuit LED which run both the blinkers and the lights. The light circuit has a small resistor to halve the power, and the blinkers run at full power. I also run diodes in the circuits to control current flow, since both circuits are wired into the same power feed on the LED.

Jeep - Moab Repair - 5-10-2023 (86).jpg
 
Comfortable with the fit, and with all my extra holes taken care of, I turned my attention to the finish. It looks good in the pictures, but it's a little faded and rough in person. So I broke out the polisher and polishing compound and went to work. It shined up nicely and the color match is now much better. The more I work on this thing the happier I am.

Jeep - Moab repair 2 - 5-10-2023 (33).JPG
 
Comfortable with the fit, and with all my extra holes taken care of, I turned my attention to the finish. It looks good in the pictures, but it's a little faded and rough in person. So I broke out the polisher and polishing compound and went to work. It shined up nicely and the color match is now much better. The more I work on this thing the happier I am.

View attachment 425934

You're a Rock Star Jeff.
 
It doesn't show up well in the pictures, but there are a lot of small paint chips on the grille that were not dealt with and have rusted. Most are pin chips, but several are the size of an aspirin. All have rusted. I dealt with that next.

A trick I use to sand down spots like these, without taking a big chunk out of the paint, is to super glue a piece of sandpaper to the eraser on a pencil.

Jeep - Moab repair 2 - 5-10-2023 (23).JPG


I can then chock the pencil in the drill, and it makes quick, controlled work of those small rust spots.

Jeep - Moab repair 2 - 5-10-2023 (43).JPG


The nice thing for me is that I can steady the end of the pencil in my hand, and really control the work. The pencil being round helps a lot.

Jeep - Moab repair 2 - 5-10-2023 (25).JPG


I think I did about 50 of these things to get ready for some touch up paint.
 
Well after all the polishing and spot sanding, the color is pretty close to the original. Here is a comparison - the new grille is in the back. If you look closely on the new grille, you can see a few of the rust spots that I have now sanded out. The thing was covered with them.

Jeep - Moab repair 2 - 5-10-2023 (36).JPG


And finally, I broke out the touch-up paint and a very small brush - I have always had very good luck matching the color on the rig. Again, I'm happy with how it is coming out.

Jeep - Moab repair 2 - 5-10-2023 (46).JPG


After the touch up paint cures for a few days I'll go over it with a light wet-sand and polish it again to flatten out the touch up spots. I'm also going to spray the back side with matching color as well. I'm not as concerned with the color match back there, but it needs it after all my wire wheel work.

I'm not in any hurry as I'm still waiting for UPS to deliver my new cooling system components from Blaine, and I can't reinstall the grille before getting that done. Blaine figured out what I needed and turned around an order for me in less than a day. Can't say enough good things about the man.

At the end of the day, I'm glad I went this route. It looks much better than the original grille would ever have looked - and I did not have to paint the thing.

Thanks again for finding this grille for me, @Alex01!
 
It doesn't show up well in the pictures, but there are a lot of small paint chips on the grille that were not dealt with and have rusted. Most are pin chips, but several are the size of an aspirin. All have rusted. I dealt with that next.

A trick I use to sand down spots like these, without taking a big chunk out of the paint, is to super glue a piece of sandpaper to the eraser on a pencil.

View attachment 425935

I can then chock the pencil in the drill, and it makes quick, controlled work of those small rust spots.

View attachment 425936

The nice thing for me is that I can steady the end of the pencil in my hand, and really control the work. The pencil being round helps a lot.

View attachment 425937

I think I did about 50 of these things to get ready for some touch up paint.

Have you considered having it PPF’d?
 
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Ryan…..You,,,,ahhhh,,,,,.know this wasn’t my grille, right?

🙂

Never in my life have I had to deal with this many stone chips - hopefully never again…

I mean for after you get it looking perfect. Probably fairly reasonable to have done if you drop your grill off and they do it.

Plus if the color is slightly off you can blame the PPF.
 
I mean for after you get it looking perfect. Probably fairly reasonable to have done if you drop your grill off and they do it.

Plus if the color is slightly off you can blame the PPF.

Just yanking your chain, brother. I don’t really drive the jeep on the road enough to ever get stone chips. 25,000 miles in 19 years - I think I’ve had maybe 5.
 
Just yanking your chain, brother. I don’t really drive the jeep on the road enough to ever get stone chips. 25,000 miles in 19 years - I think I’ve had maybe 5.

I figured as much.

I don’t know if I’d do a Jeep but I have the entire front of the truck done (grill, hood, fenders anll the way back to the doors) and I’m happy with it.