How do I restore the Mexico grille?

[The Surveyor]

Hi Guys, I'm after a little help from the Pistonheads experts.

The front cheese-cutter style grille on my Maserati Mexico project if formed in slotted flat aluminium bar and has been over-sprayed silver in the past. It's looking tired and certainly needs refreshing.



Should I:-

A, clean/prep/prime and re-paint in 'aluminium' silver.

B, try get the grille anodised silver which was the original finish.

Has anybody had old aluminium parts re-anodised (if thats possible at all!) and do the parts have to be polished / adbrasive cleaned? As it's a grille, it's almost impossible to physically get in to polish each section and it won't dismantle so should I water/soda-blast and repaint or would that look just rubbish?

Paul

[guru_1071]

i think soda blasting it would be best to get it into a state where you can asses if its worth trying to anodise it (the surface would have to be very smooth and free from corrosion, im not sure if it could be annodised as it is or if you would have to strip it. all the stuff we get annodised at work tends to be larger alloy items (like new calipers) so no issues with sharp corners etc

the soda blasting would leave it in a matt dull finish, you could get it ultrasonicly cleaned, this would be more of a satin finish. (judging by carbs that ive had done)

the only problem with leaving it as soda blasted bare finsih is that it would soon scruffy again

if you where getting it painted i think the painter would want to see it stripped as it would be very awkward to paint it due to the shape.

[V10Mike]

I don't know if yours is the same construction as a Ferrari grille, but Tom Yang goes through the whole process of restoring the grille on his 330GT starting at http://www.tomyang.net/cars/ferrari31.htm

[benjj]

If it was me I would soak it in a bath of petrol for 10 minutes and get a toothbrush on it. After that you'll be able to see the true condition of it and decide whether it is man enough to take shot blasting.

I know a chap that does soda blasting - much gentler than sand/shot blasting - that could be the way forward...

ETA - just saw you said soda blasting, probably the best bet.

[The Surveyor]

Thanks guys, i'll look into the soda-blasting route as i'd prefer not to try and dismantle the grille, it's just too delicate!

Cheers

Paul

[peteA]

Hi Paul

Might be worth joining here?

http://www.maseratilife.com/forums/

Just a thought and not suggesting its any better than the might of pistonheads!

[peteA]

Also a few ideas here...

http://www.ehow.com/polish-car-aluminum/

Also an article on how to lose 4 stone in 3 months...

[Loose_Cannon]

Paul, re anodising, I have spoken to a guy who will be doing some of my parts and he said if the grille is made in parts they would have to be parted. If it's too delicate then some other treatment like paint or powder coating would be needed

[The Surveyor]

Cheers Mark

I'm still toying with the idea of getting a new one made. It's basic flat alloy bar with regular slots for the upright sections. I've seen pictures of ones where the grille is painted flat-black which looks OK, but i think it has to be bright alloy for the sake of originality.

Here are a few pictures for reference:-







Paul

[Huntsman]

I suppose a factor is whether you prefer preservation or replacement, some folks when restoring a car wish to maintain as much of the original fabric of the car as possible, more so than the final result or cost.

If that was mine I'd be making a new one.

[AndrewW-G]

The construction looks similar to the Ferrari grills of the same period, although some bit do look welded? . . . . if they arent welded, dremel some ID markings into the unseen parts of each section, dismantle and polish as per the procedure on Tom Yangs website

Unless you want a matt finish, in which case, some careful bead blasting would bring the required finish