New Blazer showed up this week!

[johnbasler]

Originally Posted by 72BlckButy

Any info on the process you used for stripping and polishing your grill?

Love the blazer!

Similar to what several other threads have posted, here are my suggestions on the grill after experimenting with different techniques. I could probably do one in just a few hours at this point.

For the inner, I just cleaned with simple green and sprayed with a rust oleum brand silver paint for plastics. I liked that it was going to be pretty forgiving on application, and has a decent enough amount of metallic to make it pop. Very pleased with the results.

On the outer shell, here were my steps. Simpler than some others I have seen.

1. Tapped out dents with some wood blocks.
2. I attempted to remove anodizing with professional grade easy-off oven cleaner. This was not very effective. If I had to do it over again, would have gotten some lye as recommended by others on this board.
3. Hit the whole thing with a scotchbrite red wheel (picked up from auto zone). This grill had a ton of mild to deep scratches, and the wheel took care of most of them no problem. Honestly, ended up getting most of the anodizing this way too. Just be careful with creating grooves in the soft metal.
4. Quick wetsand with 400 grit, then 800, then 1000.
5. About a half dozen quick passes with Mothers aluminum polish (like for aluminum wheels, about $6 per can, I used about 3/4 of a can total. Apply liberally, then buff with my el-cheapo harbor freight 3" pneumatic buffer with wool pad. Hand-wipe with a towel between applications. Keep going till you are satisfied with the shine.
6. Masked and painted the black trim with rattle can trim paint.

Couple of notes:
1. I elected not to re-clear the grill. Was concerned about paint adhesion and potential flaws. Since the truck sits inside, waxing a couple of times a year will be sufficient to preserve the shine.
2. I tried a variety of polishing wheels and compounds while experimenting. I found the normal small cotton wheels and compounds were not as effective as the cheapy wheel polish approach. I probably wasted $25 on miscellaneous wheels and compounds and was not happy with those results.
3. Make sure you get the anodizing stripped well, or you are just wasting your time.
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