making a grille shell....ovaltine progress....

well, now i have the car back at the house, it's hard NOT to work on it. i've been fooling with this 60 apache i got today, and after swapping the ugly 60 hood for a cleaner 62, i had an idea.

i've had this grille shell pictured in my mind for awhile. i was gonna build it out of fibergl***, but fate had interveined.(sp?)



i took, the hood and cut the front half off of it. then i cut the two bull nose looking parts off from the center. at first, i thought that would look cool, and it might, but on another car perhaps. my stude lights wouldn't look good with it, so more modifying would have to occur.


next i cut the "ovals" in half, leaving me with 4 pieces. all of the easily useable for grille making. if ya look closely, you can see a homemade deuce shell hiding in there! or a track nose, or???





i wanted my shell narrower at the bottom to kinda mimic my 60 merc taillights, so i tacked in a short piece cut from one of the unused "halves". i did the same at the top, but just used a longer piece, to give me a kinda oval, 60's style grille shape. it's rough, and still in the early stages, but you can see the potential!!!........can't you???




i'll trim it down to where it's only about 6" inches deep or so. i don't like the grilles to look too deep and heavy. i mocked it up on a walker "t" radiator. it's a bit bigger than a chopped deuce radiator, so i know one will fit. with the stude lights up against it, you can see kinda the look i'm after....




i'm gonna work on it a bit more tomorrow, and i'll post up the progress if anybody's interested.

 

Looks good so far!

 

let me know if you come across any more "ugly" 60-61 hoods, and i will be glad to take them off your hands for next time...

keith

 

i love this kinda stuff that starts from a 'what if ?' and actually ends up working,,,,

 

great idea .. Matches the rear treatment well

here ... 1 attaboy

 

looks a bit like an edsel horse collar.

 

This would make a great 60's show rod grill just the way it is.

 

Now thats what "hot roddins" all about!! Great job & it'll look great when its done( looks good now).
Keep us posted
JimV

 

Gread Idea. 60's truck hoods just went up in value!

 

hey! what a neat idea! make an Edsel Grille from a Chev hood! .you might even find chrome for it on fleabay!
Great effort and well done!.

 

yeah, i looked at using an edsel grille, but it's measurements weren't what i needed. i may try to get the top more "round". i only fooled with it for about an hour or so.

 

Amen.

 

Looks great, though I think it would look better leaned foward instead of back, like the Ala Kart

 

That makes a nice track nose. The double slotter looks like a pregnant Anglia.
We just had our A/C repaired at a shop in east Houston which is also an Edsel graveyard. One low mile original, and about 10 waiting for retirement to be restored.

 

cool idea, i like the double slotted one the best though, I think it'd look pretty sweet on my A! and i happen to know where there's a field full of old chevy trucks with nice hoods, if i can use your idea.

 

thats killer

 

I like the grille shell idea, looks good, but I also like the old hood on the truck better than the newer, plain ones. I ran a '60 hood on my '66 Suburban for as long as I had it, loved it that way.

I've got an extra 60-61 Chevy truck hood here with inserts if anyone needs one, PM me.

 

sure!! it looked cool mocked up, and i almost decied to weld it up like that, but it wasn't what i had in my head.....cut away!!

 

Kick ***! I think it looks cool both ways, i like the double slot the best just because it's like an old show rod, but i think it will look cool on the model a altered i'm building!

 

Any updates?

Steve

 

That's what I was thinking.

 

progress!!! after being gone for almost a year, i've been workin alot on this heap.

to start off where i last stopped, i finished welding the halves together. since to openings had mounting holes for the old turn signals, i decided that would be a great way to mount my insert. first i took the turn signal housing and cut it.





here you can see how it screws on.



i cut the other side up and cut a couple pieces to make the top and bottom bits...



then i tacked it all together. it fits really nice and will be a great way to mount my perfed metal for my drawer knob insert.




next i stripped off the paint and welded in a small piece at the top to complete the hoop.




then i flipped it over and welded a piece of 1/4" rod to the back edge to give it some strength. it's only about 4" deep, so it's close to the size of a deuce shell.



so there ya go. with some more grinding and bodywork, it'll be fine. i'll post pics when i add the metal and drawerknobs... hope ya like it.... it was easy to do and would really be easy to make any type shell!!

 

Thats gonna look really cool Matt. Very clever mounting.

 

Weird, I was a a junkyard just yesterdat and walkid uo in '60 Chevy truck and wondered about your grill shell project. It's looking good man. I wish I had someof that metal working tallent. Even if I could though I'd still be stuck deciding wide at the top or narrow at the top, lol. I can't wate to see your finished product.

 

love it.
those hoods are **** ugly, never understood why truck guys wanted them soo bad.
you made a silk purse from a sows ear, nice.

 

heck, i wish i had some metalworkin talent!! ha ha....i used a tree stump and a hammer to make my trans tunnel !!

 

Great idea, looks good!!!

 

Nice work!

 

kick ***!!

 

That's thinking outside the box, good job.