body color grille

[ThunderbirdSport]

Years ago I did this on a Thunderbird.

Took the grill off, and "shaved" off the chrome layer, lightly sanded, primed, and pained the grille to match the body paint. Looked great.

I want to do this to my Exploder, now.

The stripping, sanding, painting part is not the problem, it's getting the grill off/out.

How's that sucker held on? Superman's sweat and Iron man's genius? LOL

I pulled, prodded, cussed, sweated, and ultimately gave up to come inside to ask.

I'd like to do this in the next day or so, as I have off work till Thursday

I also have a water leak into my right tail light..I'll be tackling that too. It's rain, so I imagine the adhesive is dried out or missing. No biggie on that though. Not my first rodeo with a wet tail light lol.

I'd also be doing the chrome on the hood too. Ultimately, I want to dechrome my Ex...it's an EB, I'll attach a pic just because

I'm doing new fogs (missing lens on driver side, fell off the day I bought it, and eventually, smoked headlights)

 

[SixPonies]

It’s super easy.

 

[ThunderbirdSport]

Thanks!!

 

[Paul Fithian]

Use lye or Easy Off (lye in a spray can) oven cleaner to strip the chrome. Spray/paint it on, let it dissolve the chrome.

Bleach also works, but make sure you don't mix it with lye.

I used bleach and lye to strip the chrome off of the center caps to paint them gray like the wheels on my 2001.