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MK 3 chrome grill surround

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Bob Hughes said:
Some wazzac painted all the grill on my car a silver grey, I am now in the process of removing it all - really painful especially between the grills. Just one point, if the grill is stainless steel then is there a special polish that I can use to get rid of the slight tarnishing that is underneath the paint?

:cheers:

Bob
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You could try soaking the grille in a paint thinner bath or brush on some brake fluid and let it sit, then just wash it off with water.
 
Not trying to be obstinate--not this time anyway--but I just looked at my BJ8's grill. The surround is fully chromed all the way around. I bought this car 30 years ago when it had 64K miles, and except for a couple resprays and a likely engine rebuild it was completely original. All chrome was flawless (at least at first). I have never found any mod or change--except for the aforementioned items--on this car, right down to the proper bolts and screws. I haven't made a point of looking, but I don't recall ever seeing a 3000 with the surround painted this way--can anyone verify for sure that (maybe some) grill surrounds were painted this way? I don't recall reading this in the Moment/Anderson resto guide either but, again, I haven't specifically looked.
 
Hey Bob,

Anderson/Moment Restoration Guide, page 163 photo with comment "Note the silver paint on the grille visible here". Accompanying text specified that this was "apparently intended to prevent reflection of the slats in the surface of the trim piece". No indication as to when the change took place. When I removed my grille surround (66 BJ8), I did notice the remains of some silver grey paint on the backside, so the previous owner either removed the original paint or it wore off.

Cheers
Dave
 
My car was build in Nov. 1966--maybe towards the end of the run they ceased to do this painting, esp. if it incurred some extra labor costs. I'm all but positive my grill surround is original--no damage to front of the car--but can't say definitively.
 
I re checked mine this evening and it most definitely has the lower inner half of the grill surround painted silver.
 
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