The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Restore Old dingged Grill and chrome or buy new?

I have the original grill on 52 AD, few dings on top two bars and it was a painted grill. Is it worth restore it, chrome it or just buy the new one from classic parts for about 400 bucks. your thoughts and actions would help me to get some ideas

Ganesh

no idea of the quality of the repro 52 grills, but originals are usually much better fit - although a painted one is cheaper to rechrome than a chromed one, chroming will be spendy, likely more than 400 .... depends on your intentions for the truck, for me, repaired and painted would be the preference

Bill

Thanks Squeeze, actually I like the painted grill better I guess. Time has become my enemy now. I dont want to take my grill apart to restore/paint the pieces. Other than couple of dings my grill is in great condition.

Ganesh

Click GRILL

Ganesh

As a point of reference, I got a quote of $80-$90 plus, per bar to chrome a restored painted grill, total would have been north of $400 as Squeeze noted.
Mike

....IF your truck is going to be inside and not caught in bad weather very much then a re-pop would be the way to go.
Classic Truck Parts (the one in Oklahoma) has a sale on right now for a chrome grille with powder coated back bars for $348.
Probably from the same place the others gets theres. Just depends on who you want to do business with.
They even had free shipping through LAST sunday night. Probably not purrrfect but depending on how you gonna use the truck.

The painted ones look good and if yours is as good as you say then I'd paint it....just my opinion.

Your grille isn't that bad and is an easy fix. Restoring an old grille is a fun little bench project.
MY GRILLE PROJECT

I'm with the Woodster on this one. Your old grille looks pretty good. I just restored the grille on my '55 1st Series, and it was a neat project. Took a little time, but when I got it back in I was very satisfied. And the originals are just plain made better than the re-pops. Look what Woody did with his...it's a work of art. My grille, although a different style, was in much rougher shape than yours appears to be. Good luck!

I was in the same predicament (not enough time) and bought a repo chrome grille. I thought it would be a great shortcut and look sharp. I was wrong what a piece of chinese nightmare crap experience it has been. I knew better but still, I expected much more for my money than I got. I plan to roll with it until I can properly restore the original grill.

Just an FYI, it won't fit easily (the holes won't line up properly and you will ding your paint wedging it in place), it's flimsy, and I doubt it will stay shiny for long...

I decided to restore the old grill, today I dropped off for sand blasting. I need find a way remove those dings. Beside mild surface rust, the grill is all in good shape.

Thanks for all your inputs.

Ganesh

I hope you took it apart first. The surfaces where the inner and outer bar go together are rusty. Best to take lots of pictures, disassemble it and then blast it.

Where do you get the refastener kit from? I am about to restore a couple geills out of 3 painted ones i have. Thanks for helping.

I believe all the vendors carry the kit now days. Just choose one you like or have had good business dealings with. I will note that one "kit" that I got was cheap cheap cheap with bolts that were smaller and washers nothing but a thin piece of tin...but I can't remember just which vendor it was. I'd recommend JimCarter as they have been in business for many many years and are stovebolt friendly.

Thanks. I will check Grumpys since they are local

CLASSIC PARTS gives a 10% discount if you use the promotional code stovebolt. I used to buy a lot of stuff from JC but they take forever to deliver to me. CP gets stuff here in a couple days.

Wish I would of known about the 10% thing.. Just ordered $1200 in various parts over the last two months.