I want to take my Maverick front end back a little more to original. To that end I got me a grille off of ebay today. It even has the medallion. I also bought some under the bumper lights form a guy on the forum. So I am all set to clean and paint things up to change my front end. Ill keep you updated with pics.

 

ebay grille with medallion
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The grille had a cracked tab (was disclosed in the description). I used a soldering iron and a plastic zip tie to “weld” the clip back together. It turned out not to bad and strong.

Before and After
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Since this grille has no lights, the turn signals are mounted under the bumper.  I picked up a set of lights form a guy on the forum.

My “new” turn signal Lights

I sanded the lights. The insides were kinda pitted and dull. I read that painting them white was a good option. I also painted the outside black.

Lights after sanding and painting
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Got some Mother’s headlight polish for plastic today. Had my doubts, but man did that stuff work. The pic does not do it justice.

Finished lights after polishing with Mother’s

 

 

I took the medallion off the grille. I have one that is in better shape. However, it is missing the bolts in the back.

 

I also used the Mother’s polish to polish up the medallions.

I bought a back for the better medallion. I need to get my hands on a drill press to make the small holes to mount the back to it.

 

2011-09-11

I decided to paint my grille black. First I sanded off all the silver finish.

Silver finish all sanded off

I then used some Mar-Hyde Black Satin Automotive Trim Coating to spray paint it black. Below is the end result. I like it. Now to get that stupid medallion mounted.

 

Painted Black, still missing medallion.

 

2011-09-15

Well I finally finished the project.

 

I took the spare back I got form a guy on the forum and tried to screw it to the medallion. Didn’t go very well. There was a drill bit broken off in one of the holes already. So it could not be drilled. I broke off 2 screws in two more holes, but at least there was a few thread sticking thru to hold it a little. I did get one screw in with out breaking it.. I took a lot of Locktite 5 min  epoxy and filled the back inside of the medallion with it. I popped the back over the two broken screws, then put in the one good screw. I then filled around the rim gap with more Locktite. Seems to be rather solid. Man did it get HOT!

 

All that was left was to mount the thing onto the grille…….

 

Done and Done…I hope