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Thread: Restoring a 3-bar grille

  1. #11
    You sure have elevated that to an art form!!!
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  2. #12
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    Hi Ed, thank you! It is certainly a lot of fun.
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  3. #13
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    Assembling a grille takes close to a full day though if I welded up a jig I think I could do one in about 2 hours. First you have to bolt the bars to the decklid and make sure they are even. For 5-bar grilles I made wooden measuring sticks which makes it easy. I marked each bar pair so they went back in the same spot. Then lay the screens on, again, I marked each so they went back on the same side. The top bars go on and are screwed in place. Here you have to make sure the bar pairs are lined up and that the mesh isn't in the way in the rivet holes so it takes a little time to line everything then snug the screws down without marring the bottom bars with the nuts. Once they are all in place and secure, you can start to attach some ribs.













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  4. #14
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    You want to just get the ribs snugged on but not locked in place mostly because you want to get all of the ribs on and get them centered before you hammer them in place. That's right, you have to hammer the ribs over the ridged tabs. And you aren't tapping. If they go on with just tapping, they will pop off.

    Once the ribs are snugged as above, you take the grille off of the decklid and rivet it together pulling one screw out at a time. I use a 4X gun with a set I made and a bucking bar with another set I made so the end result is as close to factory rivets as I could get.

    Correct size and shape rivets aren't available so I get dome rivets and cut them down on a lathe. From start to finish, each rivet takes about 10 minutes to make. 3-bar grilles are great...6 less rivets than 5.

    Once everything is riveted in place, the grille goes back onto the deckid.













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  5. #15
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    Then it's just a matter of lining up all of the ribs and hammering them in place. For most ribs I squeeze the area that the tab goes into and there's a lot of back and forth trial fitting the ribs to see if the ribs are squeezed too much or not enough, etc. Once they are all snugged while on the decklid, each rib is hammered in place. It's easy to see when they are not all the way down on the tabs and it takes quite a lot of time to hammer partially between the tabs so everything goes in place evenly.

    It was windy outside so only took a few quick shots.
















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  6. #16
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    Some indoor shots.
















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  7. #17
    Senior Member Bill Simmeth's Avatar
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    Amazing Shaun. Really well done! We need to clone you ten times over.

  8. #18
    So, now the big question... Is this officially a service you're offering?

  9. #19
    Senior Member Haasman's Avatar
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    Shaun- Beautiful work and good for you for taking this on. Wow! Quite interesting all the steps. Especially appreciate you pointing pitfalls along your process. thanks
    Haasman

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  10. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bill Simmeth View Post
    Amazing Shaun. Really well done! We need to clone you ten times over.
    Thank you Bill! But please be assured, one of me is quite enough. I'm starting your frames this week and will be done after Labor Day.
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