Art & Inspiration '32 Grille Shells

I thank Fordors for helping me to rotate my picture above, great guy.

 

... My buddy Tom's modest collection ...

 

I feel like a pauper with just a Brookville blem to show for my effort.

 

I've got one on the wall in my study nook. I got it cheap off someone who had it advertised in a club newsletter as a "1932 Ford radiator cowling."

 

I bought one with the insert at a farm auction for $40 ...... in 1990. The speeding ticket I got on the way home cost me more than the grille did!

 

I like to tell the story of the original shell on my coupe- got it off ePay back in the day when you could search for things misspelled in the listing title. My shell was listed as a "1932 Gill shell". Got it dirt cheap.

 

This commercial one was bought for an A roadster project I had, but I sold the car and kept the grille. I had considered using it on a '33 coupe done up east-coast style but that body got sold and I wasn't loving that plan either, so now it's on my office wall just in case the one on my T ever got smashed. I've got a pair of BLC headlights with identical black paint with red paint peeling off of the top that match this perfectly although they never were on the same vehicle, I think they're from 2 different fire engines.

Never had a passenger car one.

 

The 1932 Ford passenger car has a removable grille insert and the 1932 Ford commercial shell is a stamped one piece

 

Pass the torch - Any chance your shell came from Pennsylvania sometime after 2013?

 

No sir. Mine was in a basement since probably the mid-70s in New Jersey.

 

the reason they are so expensive is because everyone seems to have 3 or 4 or more.

 

Supply and demand! Maybe we can paint them green, send them through an auction and clean up?

 

I don't have an extra top piece right now. What I frequently do is buy a cheap reproduction and cut it up to patch up original shells.

 

I have a fiberglass 32 shell with no insert, that belongs to a project I bought. I do have a 29, two 31’s and a crusty shell of unknown make which is more inline with my age and standing in the hotrod world.

 

I only have one... hopefully I'll need it to complete my Sedan this year!

 

Have a few - not really that many - that I plan to use and none are hanging on any walls...........

 

I have this reoccuring dream of stumbling onto a large, dusty wooden crate full of NOS deuce grille shells with fitted inserts..........then I wake in a sweat.
Man, do I hate reality!

 

My 1st Original 32 shell & insert Came with my late 50s East Coast Channel 30 Roadster, Shell hanging on wall , Radiator cap area been butchered , Im also looking for a Original top cap Area to repair , purchased the car when I was in my teens (80s) and still have ,paid a few hundred.

 

Here's my original

 

Here’s an original I chopped and filled. In the end, though, I needed a full height shell so it’s become a decoration.

 

I have 3. Two originals that are still on the cars and one I bought cheap from a guy that just had it hanging in an old shed for years. It's been put to use on one of my builds. None hanging on walls.

 

No wonder I can't get any traction on my hamb parts ad for a 32 grill shell. They are hanging on the walls all over the US. Come on guys turn loose of one for a car.

 

Thats not going to happen so easy,
As long as the owner is a car person & healthy, I have a perfect Original in use
Another Original needs repair & wanting Two more Originals , One to replace a reproduction thats in use , & a spare , but I want to see in person , none for sale are close , I would even buy a Repo if made correct ,

 

Check out the classifieds, there is always a couple for sale. Don’t tell us you are too cheap to pay for one!

 

I had a few years ago, but used them as payment on my holy Grail 32.

 

Two sectioned fiberglass shells and one junky truck one from an old channeled hot rod of some kind.

 

Had a guy offer me a stock shell. I declined as I had one. Hanging them on a wall for decoration seems useless.

 

I've decided to take a couple along to to the LARS to sell. Probably bring them home as when a buyer see's the price I'll be in the you're F--king crazy club. If I could sell them and my new French FH block it would make the trip worth the expense.

 

Must be nice...

 

Not guilty.... but, would be happy to be guilty of having one in the garage.

Instead I have a spare '39 Mercury grille.