The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Hood to Grill Fit and Fit to be tied

This topic was covered in detail in the thread started by Kip\'s 41 and back in May I told him I would get back in several weeks with a reply after installing mine. Rather than following that thread I've started a new one as Kip's situation appears a bit more severe.

Well.... here it is Three months later and I find I have a minor version of the same problem as illustrated in this series of photos. As you can see the hood is not resting on the upper grill pads. The mis-alignment appears really bad in this shot . If you take a look at the side view you'll notice that the upper grill bar appears to sag downwards, although at this moment I don't know if it's an illusion (wishful thinking or hallucinations?) but will confirm it tomorrow.

This is the grill that the PO had installed on the truck and quite frankly I doubt that the fit was any better then or in the years that I drove it. The fit and finish was rough all over and I don't have photographs to check. Also, this grill may be an after-market part as the upper, middle, and lower section are all tack welded together.

It's going to be a real bummer if I have to rework that grill at this point as it will have to be replated. This is another first time restorer's screw-up and an expensive one at that should this prove to be the problem. I just don't see anything else that would contribute to this gap. Another thing is that the upper baffle has a "down by the head" (meaning sloping downward from the radiator forward) attitude rather than being on an even keel. :hammering: :hammering:

Any ideas?

Thanks

Down2sea, it appears that the upper slat of the upper grille may be sagging down a bit. Measure the distance between bar and I think you will find that the upper gap is smaller.

If you can adjust that one bar, you might have it licked.

Agree with above. The center of top bar may be lower. I love the way your grille pops with the blue paint inside. I have mine black but am considering changing to body color after seeing how nice yours looks. Have been following your progress for a long time, it looks great! Mine has been on the back burner due to Legion baseball, although I picked up a mint windshield regulator last week. Good luck!
Dan

Well I have to agree with the others. It looks like the upper bar is sloping down. Which would also cause your upper baffle to slope.

You talk about your grill being spot welded together. You are not saying that the upper grill is welded to the bottom are you? If the grill bars are indeed spot welded to edge pieces it is a reproduction. The originals were stamped from one piece of metal. You should have a small upper grill and a large lower grill.

You might be able to fix your problem by cutting the center vertical piece (NOT the chrome but the support behind) raise the horizontal bar to be at the level you want and then either spot weld or bolt a new piece of metal to the vertical support to hold everything together. If you do it right it won't be noticeable and more importantly you won't have to rechrome the upper grill.

Let us know what you come up with.

George

46forme - No, the upper grill is not welded to the lower.

A check of the grill this morning reveals as much as a 1/4" runout from side to center which would definitely account for the poor fit-up. Right now, at this point in time, I'm not sure how I will approach the fix. I do know that someday I'll refit it as it will bug me up. I just wish I would have done the fit-up prior to the chroming, but generally chrome work down here requires up to 6 months at times.

I have another "old" upper grill assembly that I'm going to take a look at and see what the fit is. The horizontal bars on that particular grill are more or less parallel.

Thanks for the input -- I think I just needed to vent.

Don

I am just going to have agree with the guys, your truck is really looking sharp. You've done a superb job.
Frank

I think I found the problem and it is two-fold. 1st, as we all expected, is that the upper bar on the upper grill does sag towards the center. I fitted up another upper grill that I had (unplated but straight)and the fit at either side, where it mates with the hood extensions, was good. The fit in way of the upper panel and hood was not much better.

Although it seems simplistic now, I discovered that the lower center moulding 1.268 is missing on my grill assembly. :confused_smile: This particular exploded view is a bit confusing, but the lower center moulding should mate near two lower side mouldings. My lower grill has the lower side mouldings tacked to it but not the center moulding. It does of course have the chrome apron piece that is painted the body color on some installations.

Anyone reading this who has a '41 - '46 and could confirm the assembly I would appreciate it. Perhaps I'll see one in KC.

I've checked my main parts sources try to find that piece but so far no luck.

At least I get to use the "new" confused_smile graemlin. Thanks for the feedback.

Don

The more I learn the more confused I become, and what appeared simplistic yesterday is complicated today. In the previous post I provide a link to an illustration in the 1929 - 1957 Master Parts and Accessories Catalog which calls out a lower center moulding. The Illustration title is "Truck Grill Parts." When looking up section 1.268 on page 179 in the same catalog the lower center moulding is not listed.

Does anyone know if the lower center moulding was used on the '41 - '46 truck?

Don

Don, I looked at your pictures again and it looks like you are missing the center moulding. It is supposed to run along the top of the vertical bars of the bottom grill. This gives a good division line for those of us that have a painted section between the upper and lower grill. There should be several slots in the grill where the moulding is to be held in place with clips similar to the clips that hold on the side hood mouldings.

The three pieces (two sides and center) on my grill are stainless and just needed a good polishing to make them look nice. If you have a reproduction grill it may not have the little slots to attach the center moulding.

These moulding pieces are not reproduced that I know of, so you will have to search to find originals.

Hope this helps
George

Don, I emailed you some pictures. They should help.

George

Hey George thanks. The lower center moulding is missing for sure - your photos illustrate it fairly well. At some point in time the previous owner apparently had the piece (I'll call it an apron), that on your truck is painted the body color, welded to the lower grill. In your photo of the unplated grills it appears that the apron was welded to your lower grill without the moulding also? If this correct?

I sent you a return email and was wondering if you would email me your phone # as I would like confirm a few things.

I have located the piece from my good source out in OK, Ken Neel.

Thanks alot,

Don

While having lunch I was pondering this some more and now think that I have it wrong. I've been thinking that the center moulding piece acts as a spacer and would "lift" my upper grill if installed. After some more thought and looking at your pictures it appears that this piece is actually more like a garnish molding and won't affect the alignment at all.

Going to ride the Harley now to clear my head.

Don

Don;

Where have I been to miss this entire thread !@##$% I had come here to start a new thread on fender welting

Your latest is correct. If the center molding is in its proper place in the slots it will NOT act as a spacer to raise your upper grill. There should be 11 slots for the molding, one centered over each of the grill bars that are attached to that wide flat piece that is supposed to be painted.

Seems that I agree with all of the guys and your findings about the grill bar spacing. I eventually found that one of my upper grill bars had been rewelded about 3/8” too low. However I do not know if it will entirely correct my problem as the whole front end is currently off. I do have the upper grill with me here at the computer and am going to try to measure something on the bar spacing.

At the outside edges the grill bars are welded to the mounting bracket only in there center web. This means spacing between the bars at the outside edge is also a function of how straight the top and bottom flanges are. Mine very between ¾” to 7/8” spaces between the bars.

In the grill center the bottom 3 grill bars are welded to the center support only on the under side of the top flange. So this means spacing between the bars at the center is also dependent on how straight the bottom flanges are. The space between the weld tabs on the center support on mine is 2 1/16”. The upper bar is attached by its bottom flange and I can not measure this for you as that is where mine was broken.

Currently the spacing between my grill bars at the center is fairly close to 7/8

By noe you havr probably figured out that I was looking at the back side of the grill and had it upside down. In the center its the top 3 bars that are welded to the center support by their bottom flange and the bottom bar by its top flange, Anyway the mesurementa are still the same. Sorry

Next week I hope to be driving the truck, droopy grin and all. I've about exhausted this subject and will pursue it at another time. My spare unplated upper grill horizontal bars are fairly parallel. When I picked one for plating I was looking at the general condition and at the time didn't pay much attention to how it was put together. Expensive lesson in restoration 101.

Thanks to all for the input and help.

Don