I have more than a couple sets of vents for my car. The plan was always to make the car better than new so when it came to parts that were not available in the aftermarket I was always on the look out for spares. Logic being when it came time to refurbish something the more I had the better chance of having one that would turn out the best (perfect if possible!).
Fast forward, I had a back up set of louver vents that had been sitting for a couple years in a box on the shelf in the my garage. Decided to pull them out and see what they looked like...under the thick coats of black spray paint some previous guy had slathered upon them.
Two coats of heavy duty oven cleaner later I moved up to real paint stripper. The oven cleaner wasn't going to get it done. It took off the PO spray paint but barely touched the lower paint from the factory. The stripper, however, did it's job quite quickly. It also eats through some thick plastic gloves too damn quick as well.
I guess I never realized it before but the deep set, inside portion of the chrome pieces was actually originally painted what appears to have been a flat black or very dark gray. I confirmed this by looking at others I have on hand including the originals off my car. This would make restoration a bit more difficult as masking to paint just that portion of these little pieces was quite the challenge. I suppose I could have just hand painted with a brush but I wanted to spray. Idiot.
Once all the old paint was removed and the inner sections were repainted, I polished up the remaining chrome surfaces. The pics do not do justice to just how nice the chrome came out. It is, in a word, perfect.
I also ended up spraying the back cast pieces flat black as well. It is not how they did originally based on the examples I had but I wanted mine black so I painted them too. I now have two VERY nice sets. No chrome pitting or chips at all. Can't wait to see how they look installed.
Fast forward, I had a back up set of louver vents that had been sitting for a couple years in a box on the shelf in the my garage. Decided to pull them out and see what they looked like...under the thick coats of black spray paint some previous guy had slathered upon them.
Two coats of heavy duty oven cleaner later I moved up to real paint stripper. The oven cleaner wasn't going to get it done. It took off the PO spray paint but barely touched the lower paint from the factory. The stripper, however, did it's job quite quickly. It also eats through some thick plastic gloves too damn quick as well.
I guess I never realized it before but the deep set, inside portion of the chrome pieces was actually originally painted what appears to have been a flat black or very dark gray. I confirmed this by looking at others I have on hand including the originals off my car. This would make restoration a bit more difficult as masking to paint just that portion of these little pieces was quite the challenge. I suppose I could have just hand painted with a brush but I wanted to spray. Idiot.
Once all the old paint was removed and the inner sections were repainted, I polished up the remaining chrome surfaces. The pics do not do justice to just how nice the chrome came out. It is, in a word, perfect.
I also ended up spraying the back cast pieces flat black as well. It is not how they did originally based on the examples I had but I wanted mine black so I painted them too. I now have two VERY nice sets. No chrome pitting or chips at all. Can't wait to see how they look installed.
