First off, I'd like to thank Shaun in helping me get this grill. When I got it from him, it was in good overall condition with the exception of a couple areas.
1) This grill had a dent in the lid. It appears that it was tapped out from the inside of the lid cover. When it was tapped, it popped the dent out for the most part, but caused the paint to fracture and chip in a small area. There is also some light "crazing" around where the original dent was. You can see in the first picture that the color used to try and cover the chip really wasn't that close.
2) On the underside of the bowl, there were some significant chips around the vent holes. I heard the dampers were frozen shut with grease, gunk, and your usual buildup, but X10! A previous owner must have tried to knock them loose with a hammer and possibly hit the paint by accident.
Aside from this, there were your usual wear items. The triangle leg support was rusted and dirty, the legs were oxidized, dampers on the bowl were nasty and bent, white walls on the wheels were faded, etc.
So comes to the part trying to find a paint match for this lime color. I'd like to preface by saying this grill will be a looker, not a cooker. So a high temp paint was not important to me. Thats a good thing because a high temp paint in this color isn't available.
I tried all your usual auto parts stores and home supply stores looking for a lime aerosol paint can. I found maybe 3 shades total...none of which were even remotely close to a match. Next step I went to a Napa Auto parts store near me that does computerized paint matching. I brought the grill lid in so they could scan the color. What the computer mixed up wasn't close either. The person working there offered to try and tweak the color and blend other shades with it, but I declined. For the amount I needed, the cost didn't justify it. Next I tried Home Depot. They also claim they can match any color you bring to them with their computer matching system. So I brought the lid to them and had it scanned. They mixed up some paint and it wasn't close. It was more of a yellow color than green. The employee offered to try and blend the color with other shades as well to try and match it. So at this point I said fine and did some other shopping. When I came back, he had found a color after 5 different attempts to modify the original computer choice. It wasn't perfect by any means, but the best way I could describe it was that it was "acceptable" to me. For those of you that have limes that may want to touch them up...I have the computer code for the lime paint I used from Home Depot, but remember, it probably won't hold up if you actually use the grill and get it real hot.
So the following photos are some of the things I did and the various steps.
This picture shows the lid when I got it. You can see the chip as well as the paint color that was used to try and make it look better. Not a good color match.
In this photo, I used a Bondo Spot Glazing putty to fill the low areas of the chip on the lid so once it was painted, you wouldn't see the typical recessed area and it would be much smoother. This glazing putty is typically used in automotive applications to fill any imperfections in a primer coat prior to spraying the final paint. This stuff applies very easy, dries quick, and sands smooth very nicely. If you look closely under the coat of the putty glaze, you can see the test area of some paint dabs I used. I didn't take any photos of the area after it was primed, but in the pics below, you can see the primed areas of the bowl
This photo shows the bowl after I removed the dampers. There were significant chips in the paint around the vent holes.
This photo shows the same area after the spot putty was applied. I did sand it better after so there was no putty over the good paint.
This photo shows the same area once primer was applied over the putty.
Photos showing the damper area after paint.
Photo showing the new dampers and new legs installed
Rehabbed wheels
And lastly...the final product!
Here's another in the daylight. I took off that triangle leg support in this photo and have the original back on.
Topic: My Lime 22 rehab/clean-up (Read 8696 times)