I was told about a neat ol'skool kustom trick guys used to use on these old buick grilles which was to fasten drawer handle knobs into the honey combs. I chewed on the idea for a while and finally decided to search ebay for "knobs". I didn't find much of interest on the first few pages but then I noticed the word CHROME and I immediately perked up. A guy was selling these really kool looking chrome drawer pull knobs on a dutch auction. They are 1 1/2" long and 3/4" in diameter in the center with one end cut flat at 1/2" diameter, threaded with a 8 32 machine screw. I knew these would be perfect not only for my grille but for all kinds of stuff like inner door handles, dash knobs etc... So I emailed the guy and got his price down to $0.76 each. I ended up ordering 200 after it was all said and done. These things are kool, solid metal so they're real heavy. 1 1/2 " X 3/4" at it widest point all chrome drawer pull knob found on ebay Now they just sat in a box under the bench for a few months while I was busy rebuilding the transmission...now that that project was all finished up I thought I'd tackle the grille kustomization that I'd been planning. I started by pulling the grille apart to get the center section out of the car. the center section of the grille removed Taking the grille out was just as much a pain in the arse as I figured it would be. There's a lot of nuts and bolts tucked away in there, some of which were difficult to reach. But it finally came out. Once I had the grille out where I could lay it on the bench and begin figuring out exactly how I would layout the pattern for the bullets and how to fasten them securely. frontside assembly After a few trips the Yard store and I had picked up enough hardware to try a couple different approaches. Initially I thought I might need to use some stips of flat metal strap to link the individual bullets into rows. The thought was that things would be less likely to move around if they were joined in rows either diagonally, horizontally, or vertically. However, once I started experimenting with the strap the more I realized it was just a bad idea. I ended up using a 1" washer on the back side with the edges folded in so that they would catch the recesses around each hole where the bullets would be mounted. This worked really well because this made it impossible for the bullets to move vertically, or horizontally even if the managed to work themselves a little loose. The only down side was the time consuming task of bending the edges on 102 washers which I would be needing. On the front side I used a 1/2" washer with a small nut to sandwich both the washers in place and hold everything exactly where I wanted them. That also left me with exactly enough thread remaining on the end of the 1" machine screws to fasten the bullets securely. Adding some thread locker would insure nothing would be flying off the car as we cruised down the road. frontside assembly backside assembly Now that I had the problem of securely fastening the bullets to the grille the task of bending 102 1" washers for the backside commenced. It went fairly quickly once I got myself into a rhythm. I'd put once washer at a time into the bench vice and hit with my sand hammer a couple times, turn the washer 180 degrees and hit it again, before checking for a descent fit and loading another one into the vice. Once that was done I started attaching the bullets one by one and checking them for the proper alignment. I had to get put everything together one final time just make sure all the bullets were perfectly aligned make sure everything fit nicely before taking it all apart to paint the back section. After I was sure I had everything aligned nicely I removed chrome bullets and prepped the rest of the assembly for paint. I wanted to make sure that the chrome bullets appeared to be floating in the grille so painting the back piece all black made the most sense. The painted honeycomb back piece went back into the car pretty quickly and I had thing tied back together in no time. It got a little dark on me by the time I finished late Sunday night so these pictures really aren't doing it justice but they'll have to do for now. I'll get a good picture of the finished project in daylight posted shortly. This was a really easy way to get a slick kustom look. The grille turned out really kool and it get's lots of compliments. If anyone is interested I'm sure I can put you in touch with the guy I got the bullets from.
Nice job there Rock, jr...BLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBL...a bit time consuming but sure looks nice... I spent seven weekends just building a framework, in a '54 Caddy, for the '58 Buick "squares" we put in...came out looking nice and the grille is something no one else has...just like your Booooick!!!! Congrats on a job well done. R-
Real cool! I need to figure out what I'm gonna do to my grill, I like that idea a lot looks real impressive but a pretty simple thing to do!
Beautifull job! The task is time consuming,but worth the effort. I used 88 chrome ball knobs on my shoebox. Neat look, but knobs aren't cheap anymore,"like in the '50's" Props. Sparky
Cleaning is not really a problem. After a wash, just wipe diagonally with a mis-appropriated hotel towel,and have those balls sparkling in a jiffy Sparkticus
Neat trick for sure. Resembles the grill in the wife's Chrysler. The knobs are a little different but the same principle. Lotsa work though, right?
Rocky jr, that looks the balls!! i love look of knobs, bullets, etc for grilles...here is the one i did on my merc....
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