TEch week - Building a custom grill

I wanted a custom grill for my '50 PU.
This is what I made:


First I bent some Stainless 1" weave to match the shape of the upper grill bar. The stainless weave will end up up inside the bar.


Then I cut some pieces of 22 guage stainless flatstock for the mounts. I bent the 4" x4" pieces in half to start.


To get the tabs in the right place first I positioned the piece on the grill to determine where the vertical rods crossed the piece and marked them with a magic marker.



I used the portion where the vertical bars cross the support piece to set the height by bending them forward before I cut them off. Then I bent and fed the other tabs thru the bars, cut them to length, and bent them up around the horizontal rods.

 

Then the pieces were firmly crimped around the bars and welded using my mig and stainless steel wire to avoid rusting. I won't show you my bugger welds here...LOL.

 

For the pieces that went on the curved sections of the grill I used a stretcher to mimic the curve of the weave.

I made tabs for all the mounting points the grill bar uses to attach to the other sheetmetal. I did this for both top and bottom.

 

Perfectly timed, Glenn - I have been thinking about something similar myself. Thanks!

Oh, and where did you get the stainless weave - is this a Home Depot type item, or a metal supply item?

 

Then I built the side pieces. They were rolled on an English wheel to match the bend of the edge of the bar and I used a break to make the bends. These pieces are 1.25" longer than the stainless weave was high. The edge that will be exposed was folded back over itself to make a clean smooth edge.

 

I cut the underside edge of the top bar to allow the end pieces to slide up and into the bar using a Dremel tool and a fine cutting disk. Here you can clearly see the shape the uprights need to have.

This is how they fit together:



I put a bar on both top and bottom, thus totally retaining the side pieces.
For decoration I added a cast flying eyball.




Not a bad result, eh?





My apologies for the brevity and the crummy pictures, but I was in a hurry to get this posted before the deadline!

 

The weave came from a metal yard here in St. Louis. It is DEFINATELY not Home depot stuff.

 

Clean work man.

 

Nice work.

I always knew you wanted a cyclops!

(Inside joke)

 

It looks good, that's a hard thing to carry off on these trucks.
For those hunting it The wire mesh can be found in the McMaster Carr Catalog http://www.mcmaster.com/#stainless-steel-wire-cloth/=e1aiy7

Grainger also has a big assortment of ss wire cloth/mesh/screen

 

McNichols Company has a bigger variety of metals like this than anyone else in the country, and they do sell small quantities. In addition to the woven wire mesh, they also have lots of different patterns in perforated metals. Most stuff is available in copper, stainless, mild steel, and aluminum.

http://www.mcnichols.com Pricing is on their site once you specify a material and quantity.

Materials like these are NOT CHEAP, but you generally don't need big quantities for the typical car project, so they're a way to add some unique features without spending a ton of money overall.

 

VOODOO likes. Nice work. I like different.

VR&C.

 

Thanks guys!

 

Looks REEEAALLLL good Glenn

 

Man, Your truck won't look like every other 50 pickup driving down the road. Very nice Grill. Great look and unique!

 

Nice job. I like the idea of doing something different.