The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop 1953 Grill work

Hey,

My next task will be to give my grill some very needed attention before putting my newly painted truck back together. This is not a restore. However, I plan to return to the US in about 3-4 months from Italy. I need to do something to the grill that will allow me to put the truck together for shipment to the US, and drive it awhile in the US before doing a complete rebuild on the grill.

The problem, as some may have seen in other posts, is getting the pieces and parts. I've just made another order (that is on the way) and didn't order grill pieces.

So.....here is the grill:

Grill


My thought are to sand down what I can, rust converter on what I need to, weld support plates on rusted out end supports, and to sand down the chrome for painting.

I hope to get the dings removed. I originally thought about keeping the non-original chrome, but it is in rough shape...missing in areas, rusted in others, and a rust through hole in another place.

Is my short to medium term solution going to be ok, or am I pushing on a rope?

Suggestions? I repeat that in the short term, I won't have the time or resources to do a proper disassembly and restore.

Thanks,
Steven

I think your plan is a good one…albeit somewhat tedious, but I can tell
you that the re-pop grilles are not necessarily bolt ins!

I think you are better off attending to the cosmetics on yours rather than
the headaches of making the Chinese stuff fit.

my opinion of course
mike

Mine was in worse shape than yours. Rust holes on the side can be ignored if they are not where a fastener goes. If they are trim a fender washer to span the gap and paint it. Good to go.

+1, for the short term, Scotch Brite everything to get it clean and then spray with a rattle can color of choice. When you get home, disassemble, media blast and restore each piece one by one. I believe the side plates are available separately. yours look too far gone to repair (not enough good metal to weld patches to.

BTW, almost anything can be salvaged, just depends on how much work you are willing to put in. My grille started out like this and ended up like this. Lots of work to get it there as every horizontal grille element was bent/dented. Good luck.

DavidF,

Wow, you really did magic on that truck. I think I'd be afraid to drive it, but obviously you are preparing to do just that!

Is that an A/C unit you have fitted? Which make is it? How did the install go? If I do end up in FL in the next few months, I think that I will need to add ac too.

Steven

Thanks Steven. I went with Old Air Products out of Fort Worth Texas mainly because of the hidden vents behind the speaker grille (which incidentally are the worst part of the entire kit). Have to have air in Texas during the summer or no one will ride in the truck or drive it for that matter during summer.

Good Evening ,

I've read this post with great interest. I have a grill that I am about to get into. It's a chrome job, fairly rusted from the underside but nothing rusted through, and no real dents to speak of. I thought to myself, "do I drill out all these rivets" ? Or should I just find a Chinese knockoff and be done with it. Dave, I looked at yours and honestly believe I should try to dismantle and rebuild what I have. I would like to separate the chrome bars from the painted backer pieces. When I put it together I would not know how to rivet the thing. I guess I could use nuts and bolts. Are there any bolters who can offer insight on tackling this job?

Thanks, Joe

Joe, I used stainless steel screws and nuts that fit the rivet holes. You can't see them once assembled to the truck.
Carl

The easiest solution it to use the screw kit's to reassemble
them after drilling out the rivets.
Being some what anal about doing the work just like the factory
did it, but not seeking the panicle of perfection as Deve does,
I chose to rivet mine back together as was originally done:
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/1950_grill&page=all
If your running into a lot of rust or cursed with bent up bars
in my opinion you're better off replacing the grill with a
repop and have done with it.

Denny G

For my 53 I was able to purchase a nice original painted grill from someone here on the bolt. My plan is to powder coat the pieces, hoping they can match the colors. For now it's bare metal, getting tired of cleaning the thing. We have several good swap meets here in CA and I've seen plenty of used grills, most dented a bit but with a couple of these a guy could put together a nice one.

Outstanding work Denny!


Woody has a few pic on his site showing fasteners
...Woodys link...


This guy on the hamb used spray bomb on his and it looks great
...hamb link...

Here is the spray paint he used from Home Depot
...link... I think he used the aluminum

Yep, just grind the chrome off and paint it. Nothing complicated here.

Thanks to all for the insight. I going to tackle the disassembly. I need to start (and learn) somewhere. I got the rivets drilled out of one bar. I'm on to the next. Any suggestions on keeping the drill from walking off the rivet ? I did the first bar in haste, I have since bought myself a center punch. I'll try it in my next workshop session. Off I go, and of course with goggles.

Joe

This was my solution to keeping the drill on center so
I didn't take any of the parent material out of the
grill parts. I felt it necessary because I wanted to
use the same size and type rivets that were used
during assembly at the GM plant:
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/137991432
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/137991309

Cleco's used to position inner and outer bars for re-assembly:
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/138235023

Custom anvil for riveting the inner to the outer bars:
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/138234972

Standard deep throat anvil for riveting the uprights
to the horizontal bars:
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/138235065

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Ok. I got the grill disassembled from the bottom support. Not a pretty sight. The support had a couple rusted out spots, and I am just not in a position to get another.

Rusted piece

So, I thought that I'd try my hand at fabrication. At least it is a piece that can't easily be seen. Ok, no one is going to pay me to do this job, but for a first timer, I was happy enough.

Grill pics

This is all my grill pics, the fab work is at the end.

My body shop guy is telling me to go ahead and put a covering of a a metal filler over it all.

Any other ideas, input, or suggestions for a novice?

Steven

Denny,

Can I rent your drill bushing for a weekend ? I have to make one. What did you start with ? I have a cheap drill press to work with. I imagine if I could start with an old socket I would be ahead.

Joe

Sorry Joe, 72 years has taught me not to loan out tools, hope you understand.
The drill bushing is a piece of O1 drill rod that I got from
McMaster Carr, it comes annealed so it's machinable. After
turning it on the lathe, I TIG welded it to the ViseGrips then
heat treated it by bringing it up to 1600°F which is just a
little above orange then quenching it in oil. That gave me a
Rockwell hardness of around 60c-65c.
The chamfer in the end centers the bushing on the rivet head as
you can see in the picture. I drilled just deep enough that the
head was off the shank then the rest of the rivet just about
falls out with out any damage to the grill parts.

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Of course I understand ! I get the Idea from your photos and explanation. I think I can make a drill bushing like that to serve my purpose.

Thanks for the ideas.

Joe

Hey Joe, if it wasn't for Denny and his MacGuyver gadget ideas, we would be way further behind on our rebuilds. I for one however, am annoyed by my lack of coming even close to his mad skills, and often wonder if he posts his specialty tools just to annoy me, as he seems to know that I am easily agitated/thin-skinned.
Carl

You pickin' on me again Carl?????

I simply enjoy trying to figure out a way to counterfeit the GM
assembly line procedures, couldn't stand to have it look like
one of the guys over at Chip Foose's show car garage reworked
it.
DG

Are you picking on ME Denny? :-)

Naw Bruce, didn't even have you in mind when I posted that.
Carl just likes to stick that hot poker in once in a
while, he knows how fragile I am.
You say potato and I say pothato, both look the same
from a foot away. That 98% purist thing is just a
personal thing that I share with my self.
At this point I'm plannin' on stickin' round for 28
more years till the sand runs out. I think I would
still get a kick from opening the garage and seeing
my old AD still looking 98% like it did when it was a
few years out of the hen house.
Got nothin' at all against anyone that chooses to
modify their truck. Diversity is what makes life
interesting and your doing a fine job of re-engineering
on your Jimmy, and I don't mean that in a derogatory
way, your workmanship is top shelf.

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

I'm totally on board with you on the silly 'garage shows'. I only poke fun at you from time to time to get your blood pressure up a bit to force your arteries to flush out so you will stay with us another 30 years.