My car didn't come with a plate cover. I recently bought one, but it was black and needed some TLC. I'm in the middle of shaving the screaming chicken off of it... It's shitty work and materials I know, and I hope it works in the end. If not I can hopefully tear it apart again and start over using a different method. Will post updates as I go along. First time using a dremel or epoxy putty. Behold my horrific work:
I used a marine fiberglass/plastic/ceramic repair epoxy that when hardened is sandable and paintable. I cut the rough outline of the bird out with a dremel (and scratched the front of the cover in a few places), epoxy putty affixed it to a plastic backing plate (more on that later) using clamps, then epoxied that back to the hole in the plate cover (using more clamps).
My plans from here on are to fill in the remaining low areas (including the scratches I created in the cover, as well as low areas from the plate covers previous owner), sand it all down smooth, then hand it over to a professional body shop for final prep and paint.
UPDATE:
Tried using 2-3 containers of Loctite Plastic Epoxy and a plastic spreader tool (1 container, dry/sand, 2 containers, dry/sand - pictured) and then sanded it down again, but there were still some more low spots so I used the marine epoxy to fill in those spots (pictured), sanded down again (not pictured), and then sent it off to the body shop for final prep and paint.
Update 2: Got it back from the body shop. Paint is pretty dark and I'm not too happy with it. The owner said he kept the paint and he can blend it in so it looks fine, but I'm still not too sure about that since its a lot darker than the rest of the car. I'm asking other experienced body shop people what they think. Anyways, here is some more car porn featuring a dirty, dirty car with an ugly face:
Moar picxs:
P.S. I had solid rotors on my car in the first couple pics since that is what the LS1 donor car had. I have since swapped on the drilled/slotted that I normally have.
I used a marine fiberglass/plastic/ceramic repair epoxy that when hardened is sandable and paintable. I cut the rough outline of the bird out with a dremel (and scratched the front of the cover in a few places), epoxy putty affixed it to a plastic backing plate (more on that later) using clamps, then epoxied that back to the hole in the plate cover (using more clamps).
My plans from here on are to fill in the remaining low areas (including the scratches I created in the cover, as well as low areas from the plate covers previous owner), sand it all down smooth, then hand it over to a professional body shop for final prep and paint.
UPDATE:
Tried using 2-3 containers of Loctite Plastic Epoxy and a plastic spreader tool (1 container, dry/sand, 2 containers, dry/sand - pictured) and then sanded it down again, but there were still some more low spots so I used the marine epoxy to fill in those spots (pictured), sanded down again (not pictured), and then sent it off to the body shop for final prep and paint.
Update 2: Got it back from the body shop. Paint is pretty dark and I'm not too happy with it. The owner said he kept the paint and he can blend it in so it looks fine, but I'm still not too sure about that since its a lot darker than the rest of the car. I'm asking other experienced body shop people what they think. Anyways, here is some more car porn featuring a dirty, dirty car with an ugly face:
Moar picxs:
P.S. I had solid rotors on my car in the first couple pics since that is what the LS1 donor car had. I have since swapped on the drilled/slotted that I normally have.