shoebox grille question?

anybody out there swapped a stock 50 shoebox grille for a stock 49? seems as though there's a slight differance in size any mods needed? or does it matter.

 

The round center section and the curved top piece are the same. The rest is different. You have to modify the front fenders at the turn signal area, or use the fenders that match the grill. Use the correct turn signal housing for the year grill you choose, and it will work.

 

hey flatheadhero, do you mean weld up the turn signal holes and make the correct holes for the 49? does the size diff. mean that the grill sticks out further?

 

You can modify a fender to make any year grill fit. The turn signal housings are different, and you have to either adapt a 49 onto a 50 fender, or a 50 onto a 49 fender. The left and right curved bars are longer and go through the center bar ends on a 49.Heres a pic of the difference. Basically if you have a complete matching grill and turn signal housings, you can make it fit on either year with a little creative welding on the front fenders. The fenders are the same, just larger holes for the turn signal housing in 50 compared to the little hole on the 49. The 49 housing on a 50 fender will look the same as a 49, if you weld up the larger hole on the 50, and make a smaller hole for the 49 housing.

 

hello....anyone?

 

The two horizontal bars and the barrel for the spinner have different depths '49-50 (I think the '49 is deeper). I imagine that they are interchangeable, but you'd probably want to use all '49 or all '50 so they don't look funny under close examination.

I put a '50 grille in my '51. Not a big deal, although some holes were different (and I had to change hoods). If you want to put a complete '50 grille in your '49 (or vice versa), it shouldn't be difficult.

One thing I discovered: the front gravel pan is different for all 3 years, and is different from V8's to 6's. That's six different gravel pans for shoebox Fords!

 

You raise an interesting point 50Fraud, I often wonder why the cheap car line (ie. Ford) has so many different yet similar or one model only parts in the model ranges. eg, same year but 3 or 4 different rear fenders, 40 models with at least 2 different grille sides (louver count). Etc...

 

thanks guys.

 

One factor was certainly volume: Ford built zillions of cars, so the tooling cost would be amortized over a large number of units. That said, Ford certainly didn't stint on tooling. Consider how many body styles they built in 1932 -- is it 12 or 13 with light commercials?

Mercury, on the other hand (with much smaller quotas), only had 4 body styles in its introductory year, one more the following year, and then they shared Ford's bodies with different front sheet metal for the next several years.

 

Yes, I factored in the cost amortization over huge production. Still, after all the tight wad stories I'm surprised the bean counters let it get to that stage. Having said that, 36 roadsters and sedans etc wouldn't look as nice if they all had to share the same rear fenders would they? And yes, the body style count for 32 is amazing. Happy about that too!