I am building a 32 grill----Wanna Watch????

No Bunkie, this is not for a car thats going into the Oakland Roadster show.----Not exactly for a rat-rod either. I have built 2 32 grill inserts in the past, and now I'm going to build one for the roadster pickup. Why----cause I'm not a fan of the expanded metal look, but there ain't no way I can afford $500 for an aftermarket grill. This grill will look like a 32 grill, and will be painted flat black (which will really go good with the chrome yellow paint) It will weigh about 15 pounds, and be made of 1/4" diameter cold rolled steel rod. I know that a fiberglass 32 grillshell will support it O.K., cause both my earlier cars are still running around the country wearing the grills I built. My total cost?----I just bought 80 foot of 1/4" cold rolled steel rod at the local metal shop for $18.00 Throw in $5 for a rattle can of flat black Krylon, and thats it----a $23 nineteen thirty two Ford grill clone.----stay tuned----pictures will be posted.

Very cool............ I'm in the process of getting ready to do mine too. Mine is a 4 inch chopped 32 shell. Can't wait to see your pic's and hear about the tricks.
Thanks.........N/N.:3dSMILE:

This is how it starts---I use fairly heavy cardboard to make an exact pattern of the inside of the grillshell, which will of course be the outside of the grill insert frame. This step is very important to get right. I use a glue gun and many small peices of cardboard to follow the inner curved shape of the grillshell opening.---Try not to glue the cardboard to the shell---see the vicegrips and c-clamp at the bottom. What I do is clamp a peice of cardboard to the shell at the bottom and build out from it with my other cardboard. You have to glue the cardboard to the shell at the top to get everything to stay put, but only do it in 2 or 3 small places. That hot melt glue really sticks, and we don't want to wreck the pattern when it is removed from the shell.

Okay.......... You have my undivided attention:HMMM: Don't leave me hanging on with bated breath........... what's next:confused:

Okay---next step. (this is happening real time, the computer gives me a break between stages). Carefully remove the pattern from the grill shell and trace around it onto a peice of 3/4" plywood. (You will see that I have 2 peices of plywood joined together, thats only because I never throw any plywood scraps away I reuse them over and over). Cut out the profile with sabre saw. When you remove the pattern from the grill shell it will not be flat, but will follow the contour of the shell----don't worry about that----flatten that sucker out on the plywood and trace around it.----here's the deal---we are going to use that cut out hole in the plywood as a forming buck to form the perimeter frame. I will use 1/4" cold rolled round bar for everything---if you want to use flat bar for the perimeter frame, go for it. I prefer the round stock).---When I made my first 2 grill inserts I formed the rod around the peice which was cut out, minus 1/4"---the problem with doing that is there is a lot of spring-back to this rod, and its difficult to do it that way. This way, forming into the cut out, I think it will be easier to form the rod without the spring-back factor.---It is almost impossible to form the entire perimeter out of one peice of rod, so I will use 2 peices, with the split line exactly on the vertical centerline of the insert.---The top weld actually tucks back under the upper grillshell nose, and the bottom weld will be hidden by one of the vertical rods.

oh.......oh, woodshop stuff......:whacked:

cool brian i want too see how this turns out i started my grill for my rod this weekend took a old dodge earlie 30s grill widended it 4 inches and then welded a 16 inch cowl panel on the back. i hinged the bottom so its a mini flip up that will sit in front of the fan . the rad will be seperatly mounted to the frame underneath. it almost has a old. 1920 indy car look.

There---first side of perimeter frame is done. Before you start to work on bending the rod, establish a centerline to use as a reference---this is just square and tapemeasure work. For a full length (unchopped) 32 insert like mine, cut a peice of rod 52" long, and starting at the end of the opening that corresponds with "bottom" of the grillshell, let the end of the rod extend about 5" past the centerline. NOTE--you do not heat this rod to bend it---its all bent by hand, a bit at a time to get the radius at the first corner. Once you get the first corner close, put a clamp on it, and using a medium size hammer, give it many small forcefull taps into the radiussed corner, while forcing it with your free hand into the corner, to help it take the exact shape. No big whacks---you dont want any localized bending under the hammer blow, you just want to "convince" the rod into the same curve as the plywood untill it holds its own shape.---Then work your way up to the next corner, clamping, tapping, and "convincing" the rod into shape. This requires a bit of practice. When the rod will hold the exact shape you want, your done. Take your hacksaw and cut the extra rod off that extends beyond the centerline at both ends.
---Then repeat the process for the other side. Tomorrow we will trial fit the 2 perimeter peices into the shell, and when we are happy with the fit we will clamp them into place in the grillshell and tackweld them together. (thats how we get around the fact that you flattened out the pattern when you cut the hole in the plywood)

Hay Hay Can't wait for tomorrow ! Keep up the good work. Can't beat your price.

Quote:

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[i]Originally posted by brian, Tomorrow we will trial fit the 2 perimeter peices into the shell, and when we are happy with the fit we will clamp them into place in the grillshell and tackweld them together. (thats how we get around the fact that you flattened out the pattern when you cut the hole in the plywood) [/B]

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Hey Brian............What happened:CRY: I tuned in..... same Bat channel...........same Bat time.......... Ya left me hanging.
''The Naked Ninja'':whacked:

This post shows the result of fitting the 2 halves of the perimeter frame into the shell, and tack welding them together in place, to achieve the proper fit and angle. After they were tacked together, they were carefully removed and welded solidly together on the bench. A word of caution---this is not an easy thing to do---you need one hand to hold each peice in place, one hand to hold the welder, one hand to hold the light---in short you need more arms than an octopus. I had the individual peices in and out half a dozen times trimming them to length, etcetera---then I tacked them at the top only, took the assembled peices out, trimmed some more at the bottom, put them back in the shell, tacked the bottom---you get the picture. Once they were welded to my satisfaction, I stuck them back into the shell, marked what I beleive is the center, and cut the center rod to length (cut it a bit long and keep grinding the ends a bit at a time untill it is a perfect fit between the top and bottom of the frame. Then tack weld at the bottom only. Then get out your carpenters level and make absolutely certain that the rod is dead nuts vertical, then tack the top. You only get one chance at this---cause the other rods are all spaced out 1/4" from that center rod. My next post will show how I space the bars exactly.

This is it for tonight, my back is killing me---damn rain----damn arthritis. You can see that I am doing all the welding on the back side where it won't show. I find it very difficult to control the size of bead with a mig. The first 2 grills I made were welded with my oxy-acetylene torch, where it is far easier to control the bead and penetration.--When I am finished positioning and welding all the bars on the back side, I will flip the insert over, and use my gas torch and some small mild steel filler rod to blend the ends of the bars into the perimeter frame.--Oh Yeah---check out my high tech spacers for maintaining perfect 1/4" gap between the bars.

Well, how do you like it so far?--I got this far tonight and ran out of 1/4" rod. So far, I have $18 and 3 evenings labour invested. I still have to gas weld the front side to blend in the joints with some mild steel filler rod, but I think this is going to turn out nice. Tomorrow I will buy some rod to finish it, and will add a post showing the studs welded to the back side of the insert which will go through holes in the fiberglass shell to secure it in place.

Very cool............ you did some very nice work here. I like it.:3dSMILE:

Great work, as usual Brian! But I don't think I can do this kind of welding so I am going to cop out and just put on a chrome '29 shell and maybe someday a chrome screen. Congratulations on your workmanship!

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

I like it personaly & I really like how you've done as much as possible , your self .
nothing against people with less time or patience, but it's been nice following along. :D :cool:


T L

One thing I have to tell you about----if you look at the center vertical bar, it is a bit crooked----here's why. When you first weld it in, its as straight as an arrow. Each time you weld in an additional rod, the metal shrinks microscopically at the weld as the weld at each end of the rod cools. By the time you have welded all the other rods in, this shrinkage factor gets multiplied by the total number of rods. The total shrinkage becomes so great that it causes the center rod to buckle. How do I fix that?---well, after all the welding is done, I take my small cut-off wheel and cut the center bar off close to the top where it attaches to the perimeter frame. As soon as a peice the width of my 1/16" cut-off saw wheel is removed, the rod straightens out, then I reweld it.

Dang . . . I thought this thread was going to be about barbeque

Brian

Now if anybody hasnt noticed this is really what hot rodding is all about,Brian it does appear that yuo are a Master at what you do.

Do you live anywhere close to White Rock,BC as I sure would like to have you stop by my shop and help out with my project.

Kepp up the great work and posts on your progress of your project.

Joe

That is some awesome work, and I agree with jnex...this is whats it's all about. I myself am willing to sacrafice a little looks to be able to do it myself, but that grill is looking like something you'd buy from a catalog- and those things arent cheap. When thats done and you can sit back and look at it, that has got to feel good!

Very nice, and I will be following this thread to see your progress. Thanks for sharing.

Greg

Interesting. You and I are apparently of the similar mind when it comes to fabricating things. I'm not rich and I don't buy anything I can make or do myself. I built my own '32 style grille insert very much the same way you did. Check out the pics in my gallery. I also used 1/4 inch round stock for the perimiter and center bar, but then I switched to 1/8 inch rod for the remaining bars and spaced them 3/8 inch apart. After trimming the ends, I added two cross bars behind the verticles to add strength and more closely mimic a real '32 grille. It is held in place with four 1/4-20 studs welded to the back. After painting it, I finished off the look by adding a chrome trim ring around the perimeter. It's made of stick-on chrome moulding (plastic) available at the local parts store. I spliced the ends of the chrome at the top where it's least visible.

I shaped my perimiter piece directly to the shell and it was a difficult wrestling match. I really like your idea of using the plywood form to help shape that piece. Next time I will use your method. Thanks.

Sorry Jnex----- I live in Barrie, Ontario, about 100 km. north of Toronto. I'm going to finish that grill today, I think. I have to go down town and buy one more 10 foot length of 1/4" rod, and I'll check my mild steel gas welding rod supply before I go. ---Will post more later today.

We're Finished. The insert has had all the bars added, then I turned it over and gas welded the front side, using a 1/16 " diameter mild steel filler rod. This is where it would be nice to have a tig, but then if I had a tig, the insert would be made from stainless.---There is a lot of movement and heat distortion from using an oxy-acetylene torch, but I don't let it bother me too much---after everything is well cooled down, a few well placed whacks with one of my hammers and it is quickly returned to the proper shape. I decided not to weld the studs onto the back of the insert right now, as I am going to blow the car all apart for final paintwork, and it will be easier to do with the grill shell on the bench while I have it apart. TOTAL COST---$20 (I had to go down town this morning and pay $2 for one more 10 foot length of rod.) Now, don't get me wrong here---nobody is ever going to look at that grill insert and mistake it for one of Dan Fink's. On the other hand, nobody is going to see my car coming down the road and mistake it for an ornamental fireplace screen. Thanks for watching---Brian

Brian
Great job it looks like it has been there all its life, you sure will have a great ride once complete.

What color are you going to paint the old girl???

Joe

Same colour of yellow as the engine----2004GM Slingshot Yellow

Brain,

Fantastic work and even better spirit!!

I always pick up great tips from reading your posts

Thanks,

Bobby

Beautiful job, I wish I could weld, I am building a Fibreglass rod, front end looks like a '33, I have a glass insert I've painted black for now but like the looks of your rolled steel. Where in Barrie did you get it from, I'm up there once a month for work and I have a couple of buddies that can weld. Maybe I can talk them into giving me a hand.
Thanks from a fellow Canuk.

Nice work Brian.:) :) :) :) Project is lookin' gooooood.

nice work Brian. Ironically I'm doing the same thing with a grill for my 41 Willys. I have 1/4 in aluminum tubing and more or less have run into the same thing you did. I think the alum stretches a bit easier so it didn't buckel. The spacing is very critical as each error is multiplied as you go. Using the same spacers and clamping the same way goes a long way to keeping the error down. It is surprising what you can see if you step back 20 feet so it needs to be pretty good.
I made small mold that shaped each tube/bar then trimmed them to fit. I made little drill jig that cuts a fish mouth in the tube so the tube fit each other perfectly. A bit more work but in the end better.
I'm thinking of anodizing the grill some color but not sure what yet.

Wow,
Some/ most of the real builders sure make it look easy.
Thanks for taking the mystery out of roddin'.
Very informative.
fourty1:)

O.K. Guys and Gals---I promised you a picture of the finished product---Here it is. It fits perfect, and looks better than the picture actually shows. The total cost of this 32 style grill ended up at less than $30, and I am well satisfied with it. I have always heard that you couldn't run a 32 style grillshell on a Model A without a V'eed headlight bar, and its true----sort of. That headlight bar in the picture is a crusty old fleamarket survivor, and it is setting in the stock position and it is not V'eed. There is room to get a cigarette paper between the center grill bar and the headlight bar, and thats about all. The previous 2 rods I built had custom headlight stands, so I have never actually seen this before, only heard about it. Thanks for following my posts. Brian ---- Looking at this post 5 years later, it just makes me squirm all over to see how crooked that old headlight bar was. I won a roomfull of trophies with that ugly thing in place before I finally got rid of it and put on a dropped and V'ed stainless aftermarket headlight bar last winter.

and a better shot

Brian, it looks GREAT! The stock bar looks well proportioned with the tall grill shell and your work on the grill is also great. Today I received my dropped stainless headlight bar from Speedway for the '29 shell on my phantom car which is a pile of parts in boxes, and I think the dropped bar will work OK with the lower '29 shell. Well I took a brief summer job again this year to pay off the Bebops body, last year was to pay the machine shop bills for the 350 SBC rebuild, but maybe by September I will have some pictures with the body on and then I will know whether I did the right thing using the dropped bar.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

now thats what I call serious custom Job You da MAN Keep it up ! ! !

I believe that will make some of the "Pros" envious. I know I am. :)