Facelift

November 1/ 2008

As is obvious in the above picture, the steel back-panel behind the plastic grille was in some need of repair. Namely it was shallow rust pitting that had eaten the steel and generally dulled the paint.

as an interesting aside, you may note the round cutouts behind the square headlights, along with the round cutouts to the inside. the knockout for the rad is also strangely well thought out design-wise. There is a simple explanation for this though, and it has to do with Jeep's *cough*laziness*cough*. Jeep had it in their mind that instead of changing the body style like other competing automakers, they would simply stick a new grille overtop of the original 1963(ish) grille steel.

This handy Chart (Prepared by someone by the name of DANHS) shows all the Grilles over the years; all of which were backed by the grille you see in the upper left (minus the chrome pieces). I would eventually like to revert mine back to the rhino or the razor grille, since they look so much better than my worn out, cracked, and faded plastic grille.

That aside, I removed my plastic grille, affixed with only 3 real bolts, and an assortment of oddly placed screws that held it to the body (oh the woes of what are termed "old man" fixes). I gave the whole surface a sanding, and removed the rust with the wire wheel and some rust converter stuff. the shallow pitting was pretty easy to fix with some light bondo work. I took the front bumper off too, since it had rotted out at the mount points and wouldnt pass certification. masked the essentials and shot some primer onto the grille to provide a good base.

with that done, i grabbed a can of canadian tire near match black I wanted to use up (this was more to see what it would look like and get it all one colour, as opposed to a final painting). turned out pretty well I'd say.

Also, after doing this, I fixed my turn signals (which had some broken plastic clips, and were simply screwed in by wedging them with screws drilled through beside the lens (more old man fixes). i made some new sprung steel clips and mounted them to the lights, and probably fixed a few other things in the process.. i dont entirely recall.