[Prorallye]

Guys,

Did a search but have not come across anything. The grill on my eliminator is in pretty good shape and I'm going to touch it up and bring back the original paint on it. My question is, my walking cat emblem does not have flat black paint in the background and I see no signs that it ever had paint on it. I see though that a lot of 1970 eliminators have the chrome cat in the foreground an flat black in the background as a contrast. My car was built early in September of '69. I see a few listed on a google search and it looks like most have the black background but some don't. Was going to paint the background but don't want to if it may have been produced without it.

Cheers,

Brian

 

[Mike_B_SVT]

I thought they all had it, but that over time it gets dinged up and is hard to mask around that cat for touchup. I believe most folks end up stripping the cat background and reshooting everything around that square.

Someone posted on here about how to remove the cat and respray the whole thing. IIRC, you have to cut off the back of the studs for the cat on the inside of the piece. Then after you are done re-blacking the grille you have to glue the cat back on. I understand it is "permanent damage", but is not visible without taking a look at the cat mount studs.

 

[Prorallye]

Mike,

Thanks. Yeah I saw the studs on the back and figured I could take it off but will probably leave the cat on and try to paint around it by masking it off. The rest of the grill should come out nice. A few fins were bent but my father and I took a heat gun and straightened them out. Took a while but came out like new. Trying to keep everything on this car as original as I can.

Brian

 

[Bad69cat]

it's not easy to get paint to stick on it either. Mine peeled/flaked after the first few years - I didn't use an acid etch primer thinking it may cause harm over time..? I wonder if there is a bonding agent that could be used..?

 

[Prorallye]

Badcat,

Yeah, also if anyone had put on Armor All or something like that over the years the paint will fisheye. I think I may try a light coat of that etching primer and paint over that as I've had decent results with that on my TR6 grill I restored a couple of years ago. Will take some time but should come out decent. We shall see.

 

[Mike_B_SVT]

Hrmm... as an alternative to masking off the cat, could you "paint" the cat with something that would allow you to wipe it clean after spraying the rest of the grill?

Y'know, carefully cover the cat with "goo" of some sort that paint won't stick to. You could use a small detail paint brush to be sure and keep the "goo" on just the cat. Then after spraying the grille and letting it dry, you wipe the "goo" off the cat.

Heck, I don't know... but I would think it might be easier to paint the whole darn thing and then take the black back off of the cat than it would be to try and mask off the cat.

 

[Tomcat]

Y'know, carefully cover the cat with "goo" of some sort that paint won't stick to. You could use a small detail paint brush to be sure and keep the "goo" on just the cat. Then after spraying the grille and letting it dry, you wipe the "goo" off the cat.

What you're looking for is called MasterMask. It is sold at Hobbytown USA. It ia a liquid masking film and works very well. The original backing piece was anodized black just like the blueing on a gun. Maybe thats the solution. Mask the cat and "blue" the rest.

 

[Prorallye]

Tom,

Good call on that masking product. It's interesting, I wondered why the grill still
Had most of the original paint but the emblem was not black anymore. The backing plate does look
Like it was anodized because it has an interesting sheen too it.