For those of use who have the chromed foglight grills - interested in how you have/do maintain your through the years. My understanding is that the very early grills were chromed metal, but most are chromed plastic.

As you are aware, these guys just love to eat up anything on the roadway, especially bugs, at high rates of speed.

So, how have you kept yours pristine - or have you? What are your tips?

Beyond that, what about you guys who have the painyed grills - foglight or no? How do you keep them?

I must be lucky. Other than nasty bugs and road grime, my 914-6 grills have held up over the years. For maintenance I take them off before the car goes into winter hibernation (four months of the year here), clean them along with the exterior body work, wax them with whatever flavor of the month wax I'm using, and put them back on. Only problem I have are the screws. Can't seem to keep them from tarnishing and windup replacing them every year. I suspect the original ones were chrome as well. but are long gone.

The 914-4 (without fog lamps) are painted to the body color. They don't fair too well. I've had to repaint them several times over the years. Usually when the base plastic starts showing though the paint chips.

Only time I saw a set of metal grills, they didn't appear to be chrome (even had the chance to try and "finger polish" a couple of the fins after remarking to the Owner how luck he was to have the metal grills). They appeared to be a satin finish much like anodized aluminum.

Yeah, mine are still original & get a good annual cleaning/waxing. I used to use simichrome, but stopped because of the abrasives in it. Now I just use a bunch of q-tips & whatever wax is laying around at the time. Given that they are chromed plastic, I'm surprised they've lasted so well. Wish I could say the same for the chroming on the turn signal buckets, which have never been polished, just cleaned.

I made a plastic shield out of latex that I lay on top of them when I'm driving.

When I'm showing off the car I just remove them.

I used some older grills to be my mold.

Anybody ever look into a group buy on having these plastic grills rechromed? I'm sure there are enough members who'd jump at it. Considering it's a couple of hundred bucks for a new set.

I've done something similar. Shaped 2 pieces of clear lexan to the dimensions, w/4 holes. When going for a longish drive (Parade, etc) I put the grills in car & the lexan in place, held by the regular screws. Not only keeps the grills from being "bugged", but the foglights too.

Saves some time when getting ready to show & we all know that there's never enough time. Unless you go in an enclosed trailer.

I took a chrome one that was painted black and soaked it for a few days in Simple Green. Took the paint off nicely, and left the chrome intact. In fact, the chrome on this was perfect.

My friend, you just saved/made some money!

Hey gus,

All I do is polish often. When I wash the car I always take my air hose & blow out the water to eliminate water spots. I also use Q-tips when polishing.

Tom
BTW: Hope you guys don't mind these anal pictures .

Hey Tom,

Ever thought about having a web-based conours?

Who has got any green tint or caked on grime???????
That is on chrome???
If you thought the Citristrip was fun..I Really got a good one for yah....

What is the finish on the horn behind it?????
Looks to be black??

Hi 914-runnow

Glad you asked & thanks.

The horns are a light to medium grey color metal finish when new. My old ones were in good condition & I just used a brass wire brushed & a little scotch brite to clean off the grunge. After cleaning to the original finish & being careful of scratches (metal finished) I clear coated everything to keep clean. I used a good clear coat paint out of a rattle can & it has held up great over the last (10) years or so. If you had a better look today they look as good as new.

Note: I used this clean & clear coat on many of the other pcs.
Example: If I showed you the electric motors on my front headlights drive assembly you would notice they are still showing the tiger stripe (or some say Zebra stripe) pattern they all had when new. Start looking at these head light motors and you will see what I mean (mine are perfect). Here's a picture to show you what I mean.

Tom

Wellllll no one has grimmey horn grilles???
ANYWAY AN SOS PAD DOES GREAT..DOES NOT SCRATCH!!!
That is on the chrome ones....Get gloves and figure 30 mins per each..
Possibly 2 to 3 pads each!!

I'm a little confoosed!
How can an SOS not scratch? It's steel wool impregnated with soap. Look what it does to metal pots & pans (which it's supposed to do). I stopped using Simichrome on mine because it has a very fine abrasive in it. How do you keep SOS from scratching?

BTW, I use non-abrasive toothpaste these days. Doesn't scratch, cleans well & is tasty to lick off.

Probably would not use it on Brand New ones....
BUT on ones that have the Caked on grime and Green tint..
It comes off...AND leaves no scratches...
Really!!! Got that one from my bro in law... that has an original
early 73 2.0.. 46k miles..White no less...2nd owner too!!
I thought he was cracked..
BUT from a guy that has won national model 'A' competitions..
You should really listen to..
He has bought black ones at swap meets
stripped the paint.
then polished the chrome with the SOS..
They looked really close to new!!

Sorry, I'll stick w/toothpaste. Helped me win 2 PCA Parade concours.

I bought some grimy ones like that at a VW sawp meet for....$10...for the pair!
I had some Novus #2 plastic polish laying around that worked pretty well. It will probably require a good bit of time/ elbow grease, but I think it would work.

As far as refinishing, I'm looking into that chrome paint. It's not rattle can stuff. You have to get it done by a Body Shop that has the proper equipment. Stuff looks pretty amazing. I was thinking about 'chroming' fiberglass 914 bumpers with it.

A green tint is probably from corroded copper. Chrome plating is generally three layers with a base of copper, then nickel and finally chrome. The chrome is very thin and basically transparent. The bright finish you see is actually the nickel, and the chrome is there to protect the nickel. The copper is used to give a good base for the nickel layer.

The same green tint is often seen on the alloy lug bolts when the cad finish wears off and exposes the copper layer.

I just replace the dirty ones with another new one.