Silvertone Broken Grill

[Bronco-Jeff]

The grill is broken in several places and even have some missing pieces. I was told by a wood worker that there are places that can make a mold of this and then make a polyurethane version.

Any thoughts?

[Curt A]

Or, you can try your hand at sculpting the missing parts with epoxy putty... remove the grill cloth first and lay the grill on a piece of wax paper. Mold the parts with your fingers as close to the original as possible, then carve the details in or use a Dremel... Or you can make a mixture of sawdust and wood glue (thick enough to mold by hand) and you will have the approximate same material as the original.

[Curt A]

Or you can get some molding clay and press it against the piece that is still there to form a mold and fill it with resin to make a duplicate and glue the duplicate part in place... Not sure of the exact directions, but Hobby Lobby or Michaels would have that...

[Curt A]

This portion of your grill would replace the two missing parts...

[startgroove]

It appears there are two pieces missing, neither of them have a match anywhere on the grille, due to mirroring.

So, that leaves making the pieces in this fashion: From a hobby shop acquire some oil based modelling clay, some Silicone casting rubber (such as Silastic) and a kit of two part epoxy. Lay up the grille, face up on a piece of cardboard, or other flat surface. Fix with tape, or other means, the grille to the board.

Place the modelling clay into the areas where the pieces are missing and sculpt it to a reasonably accurate duplication of the missing pieces. Once satisfied that the pieces are acceptable, carefully remove the grille.

Build a dam around each part on the board. Make the dam approximately 1 inch larger than the clay piece and about twice as thick as the thickest part of the pieces.

Mix and pour in the Silastic rubber, covering the clay pieces with at least ¼ inch of rubber, and let it set overnight. The next day, remove the Silastic from the pieces without tearing the Silastic, these are the molds for making new pieces.

Mix up enough two part epoxy to pour the two pieces. You can add chocolate brown coloring, or enamel paint, to the epoxy (I've used RustOleum Leather Brown before) and mix well before pouring into the molds. Within hours the two should set up and you'll have duplications of what you sculpted. Glue them in place and fill as needed. The epoxy pieces will take a wide range of paints so you can match to the rest of the grille.