Grille Trim Question

Hey,

I've been running a 2004-style grille on my 2002 Jetta for a while (has the horizontal chrome strips on the "vanes" that site either side of the VW logo). It's still in overall good shape, but the chrome strips on the horizontal bits are looking a bit worn/rough.

I'd like to freshen up the chrome strips, rather than source a new grille and deal with getting it painted. Anyone know if the strips are available as standalone parts, or if there's a reasonably easy/inexpensive way to pull those bits and freshen them up that won't look awful inside of two weeks?

I don't think there is much you can do other than pull them off of another grill.

Ok. There is a freaking awesome product and I cant remeber the name of it right now at work but it's for kitchen and bathroom faucets. It's a spray paint and it looks exactly like chrome. It's like 15 a can each and you would definitely want to clear over it as I bet the UV is going to kill it over time as its rated for indoor use but it's a wer location safe. I'll try and find it when I get home. Your not going to find it at your local hardware store and all those silver/chrome paints from the hardware store are garbage. Been there. Done that.

Ok. Found it.
https://youtu.be/Af7pRN4004I
Guess It is a box store paint lol. This stuff works great.

Thanks for the suggestions, gives me something to research over the holidays.

Guess I should post a follow-up, since I did finally do something about this a few weeks back.

Turns out the chrome bits are not removable, they appeared to be molded into the rest of the grille (at least on mine). However, by the time I got around to looking into this I'd forgotten about the suggestion above and focused on something I'd heard about from the scale modeling crowd - a "liquid chrome" paint marker by Molotow (a British company). Had good reviews in the modeling circles and was only $11 and change on Amazon, so bought one of the 4mm ones.

Took the grille off the car, brought it inside and gave it a good washing and left to dry overnight. Masked blue painter's tape, then I did a little sanding (220 grit) or scraping (xacto knife) to knock down the loose 'flaps" and give the surface a little texture, then wiped down and went to work with the marker. Stuff went on looking literally like liquid chrome, and leveled pretty nicely. Let it cure 24 hours per the instructions, and then reinstalled.

Came out great - it's not perfect, but it's much better than I expected for under $12 and maybe an hour's work. After nearly a month there's no sign of chipping, and from at least a foot away it looks really, really good. The only pic I have at the moment of it doesn't do it full justice, but I'll share it anyway:



Should have taken a "before" to show the difference, but before I used the marker probably a third of the original chroming was gone and the rest was pretty pitted/chewed up after all the years/miles. (note the speckling on the bumper cover, and consider that about a year ago I had to replace the license plates because the front one had been rendered nearly unreadable due to 18 years of "highway sandblasting"). Only reason the hood doesn't show similar wear is because I had just had it replaced a week or two before this due to excessive rust on the leading edge, to the point where there were perforation holes just above the headlights (no, the rusted hood wasn't the original).

Interesting. One other possibility from the modeling world that occurred to me right away as I was reading your posts -- there is a peel-off/stick-on chrome film that could also be used. IIRC, it's real metal, and can be had in rolls or sheets.

A little follow-up:

Turns out that the chrome paint marker treatment doens't hold up very long. Going to have to look into the film irvingj mentioned, or look for some other peel/stick solution (maybe "door edge guard"?)...

The vortex crowd uses a variety of 3M rolled vinyl for various projects like this- including adding chrome to trim, or deleting chrome by masking it. I have some chrome vinyl rolls, as well as black, but haven't used them extensively for this type of project. It's basically measure, cut, apply. Good film lasts a long time. I don't have any links, but there are usually threads over there, and some videos on youtube.

Thanks for the tip. Will look into that after I figure out why my AC isn't blowing cold again (just used it a couple days ago).

Rob Mayercik said:

Thanks for the tip. Will look into that after I figure out why my AC isn't blowing cold again (just used it a couple days ago).

Click to expand...

This is going to be more "thread drift" but it's my thread so heck with it...

Got the AC working again without much trouble - started by checking the on-battery fuse block before leaving work that night, and was pulling the little 30A green fuse for the fans and the darn thing squirted out of my hand and vanished down under the battery tray.

Fortunately, there's an Advance Auto Parts within 5 mins, so I drove over there and bought an ATO fuse assortment (though I thought these were called "ATC") since I only had spares on-hand of the mini versions.

Put one of the new 30A fuses in, and did the "key/AC on, check fans" test and both fans spun up on low as they should. Mounted up and headed for home, figuring I'd do other tests the next day, but decided for the heck of it to try the AC again and the darn thing started blowing cold again. Still working as of this morning (did a quick test while on the highway).

Guess that fuse was the problem - the terminals inside where the fuse goes looks ok...

Years ago the AC on both our MkIVs was intermittent prior to dying, and after thorough troubleshooting, it ended up being the AC compressor. Both times on cross-country road trips- hottest day of the year in KC, MO, and hottest day of the year near Denver. Wish it had been a fuse!

I was lucky this time - the first time it went out, it was a failing compressor and a broken compressor clutch trigger wire. The second time, it was one of the fans and the FCM (and no, I wasn't on the original fans at that point).

I still want to check the high-speed mode on both fans and try to confirm the FCM is not dying (though the AC working tends to indicate it's OK), just in case.

Both our MkIVs were still on original fans until last fall. The Golf had one fan stop working, so I pulled one from a late year MkIV at the salvage yard and installed that, and found that the Golf fan motors were fine, but the plug had corrosion in it. I think I can clean it up and have a good one sitting on the shelf. And of course, "shelf" means a box full of parts in storage.