My pal Jeff just got his El Camino back from our friend Morgan. Morgan was doing a little metal work on it, making it a little more of a custom than the simple look it had before. For anyone that hasn't seen this done before, here it is, done right. Mercury grille in a 1959 Chevrolet. First, before surgery. Next, the post surgery photos.
Bitchin man, I really like the filled nostril look and the Lucas beams kickass. Merc grills are a natural, I am surprised there are any left!
A lot actually. When we just stuck the grille into the front end it looks compatible, and is close, but there is about an inch or so of fender sticking out on either side, and the upper valance does not match at all. There are all sorts of gaps and mounting the headlight buckets takes some work.
Looks great, I did this to my ElCamino, the hood latch was the trickiest part. I really like the filled nostrils, do you have any close ups of that or the underside of the hood in front???
I've never seen that before, and reading the text my first thought was not favorable. But seeing the photos, I really like it. I never liked the 59' nostrils, and this looks much better than the filled nostrils, stock lights, and tube grill you often see. Very nice!
Beautiful. I like how the hood has not been pancaked...with the seam on the leading edge, it's very clean.
Nice fab work, but I think the result looks just a bit too much '61 Mercury and not enough '59 Chevy.
Bill Decar did several with 4 headlights as posted, then started doing 2 headlights. For SoCal people
Look up Cody Walls ,last name may be misspelled , 59 wagon build . He shows how he did the grill change .
First saw that done in the '70s, Los Banos show. Owner was showing it to Gene Winfield, Gene was impressed. As I was...Never seen such a natural grille swap in my life. Owner said it "just fit right in"...Modest, obviously.