I did this before on my other grille, and have just done it on another so I thought id do a write-up while I was at it. Excuse the phone pics and the odd grille! Some people think its far too much effort to spray the stripe back on and end up brushing it, this guide will hopefully show just how easy it is...
What you will need:
Masking tape,
Wet an dry (400 or 600),
Plastic primer,
De-greaser of some sort,
Tornado red paint and patience!
On my last one I used two-pack paint and etch primer but can be done just aswell with the normal halfords plastic primer and paint.
I started by masking the stripe off. There is usually a distinct mark, not right on the edge but just under it that you can follow with the tape.
Make sure all the edges of the tape are pressed down or the paint will leak underneath. This does take a while and can be a bit fiddly but perseverance prevails! Once this is done you will need to cover the rest that doesnt want paint with whatever you can find. Just make sure there are no gaps because paint with get through any little hole!.
Then grab your abrasive and key the stripe being carefull not to bugger up your masking lines. You can use 400 or 600 for this, when using aerosol paint id use the 600 as these paints tend to be a bit thin.
Once its keyed clean it down with some type of solvent degreaser or surface cleaner.
Then dust a light coat of plastic primer over it to give the full coat a good base to bond to.
Leave this for a minute then go for the full coat, make sure its even and dont load so much on that it runs.
The primer dries quite quickly so half an hour should see it ready. You wont need to rub it down in between coats as it hasnt got to be immaculate and the plastic primer is thin and dries smooth anyway.
Then do a similar thing with the red, dust a bit on and leave for a minute. You want to try and do the gloss coat in one hit. start at one end, work your way around and keep the can the same distance as with the speed. By the time you get back to the beginning the paint should have tacked up enough to go round it again... this time you are aiming for a finish, get it on nice and thick but dont overload it!
When doing things with loads of maskin lines on it I tend to de-mask it before the paint has fully dried(not due to impatience!) this is because if its rock 'ard it can pull your red line off. I waited around arf hour on this here grille.
There ya go then, a great way to freshen up your stripe or put on a not existant one!
Its not pink btw... it just looks pink!
Happy dubbin, Ben.
