In general, I have a broken grille.


I bought another one in good condition. The old damaged grille... well, I can't throw it away. There is an opportunity for an experiment.
The first thing I decided to do was clean it from chrome so that I could paint the grille in the body color.
The appropriate chemical was bought - ferric chloride, I bought 1 kg of dry ferric chloride from which I created 4 liters of brown liquid.


The next step is to need a container for bathing the grille in a solution of this substance.
I was counting on my construction basin for mixing concrete. It is quite large. But difficulties arose. Firstly, such a large basin would require a lot of solution, and ferric chloride is an expensive thing ($7 per kilogram). Secondly, the radiator grille turned out to be longer than the basin (who would have thought!) and at the last moment it did not fit into it. A decision was made: fill a basin with sand, dig a hollow in the sand approximately in the shape of the grate, seal the top of the hollow with stretch film, and carry out the cleaning process inside a polyethylene bag, the role of which will be played by a cover for storing tires.
I will say right away that the idea with the bag has a flaw - the bag is flimsy and tears from contact with sharp edges, careful actions are required.
No sooner said than done. Sand was stolen from the nearest construction site, loaded into the basin, the bag was found on the shelf.



But a new problem arose - the fasteners of the grate are made of steel and ferric chloride can damage it, and this is unacceptable. The solution is to seal the fasteners with thick grease such as solidol and some kind of film. As a result, a cokctail tube was used on the bolts and a piece of stretch film on the central clamp. Further practice showed the effectiveness of such protection, a nail experimentally thrown into the solution did not survive the night and turned into silt.


Since the grill did not fit into the basin entirely, the cleaning took place in 2 stages: 1 night on the left side, another night on the right. And a couple more nights to finish those places that accidentally floated above the solution (the bag broke, the solution leaked significantly).




As I was told, the iron chloride solution can be used for a long time, so it does not need to be thrown away. I will say right away that I was unable to do this, part of the solution leaked into the sand through holes in the bag, I spilled the rest when trying to pour the solution from the bag into the bottle. Slob!
Here is the result. A bare grill for painting.




I recommend using gloves for this work. It is not that the solution corrodes the skin, but it stains your hands unpleasantly and is difficult to wash off. In addition, I carelessly took my knife in dirty hands and unpleasant dark spots remained on the polished steel handle - now polishing will be required.


Some recommend using a respirator - at your discretion, I did not feel any smell or other discomfort, but I was working outdoors.

What will happen next - I will write later

 

Nice write up geg, thanks

 

And to think that I used a single edged razor blade and manually peeled the "chrome" off.
Some pieces were big, some small, but it came off.
It took a couple of days, so what.

 

I also picked up the blade at first, but 2 minutes was enough to understand - it's not my way (I'm lazy). I threw the blade down and started googling.
well,
now we have 2 options for behavior in our archive,
there is a choice, which is always great

 

intermediate information



putty was applied to the plastic in order to:
1. level the area under the butterfly;
2. restore the central rib, which was previously cut off.
Once it hardens completely, I will process it with sandpaper.




and also soldering and welding,
there were cracks - welded,
the jumpers between the horizontal bars of the grill were broken - soldered with a hot soldering iron, filled with additional plastic and secured with a metal mesh.
Now this whole thing is a solid monolith.






when there is time, I will act further

 

Thanks for your update photos!

 

and then there was printing a butterfly-shaped thing on a 3D printer and mounting it on the grill, then puttying and primary priming of the upgraded grill




then final priming for painting and the painting itself



this is not the end yet

 

I really like that paint color.

 

Looking good

 

We call that butterfly thing a bow tie.nice job on the grille modification