What are these grill teeth?

I've long been a fan of Phil Macchiarella's 50 Plymouth and it's one of the reasons that I purchased my 49 more door.
Probably my favorite feature on this car and the first thing that caught my eye about it is the grill. But exactly what the hell is it made of?
They don't look like any grill teeth I've ever seen before, so most of the obvious stuff is out.
Anybody have any idea what they are or at least COULD be?





I also wonder what ever became of this car. it seemed to drop off the face of the earth in the early 60's.

 

I'm thinking they are 1950 Desoto. They may be from something else......but very much like the Desoto's....


Ray

 

Buick?

 

Looks like 53 Buick to me.

 

I'd say they are Desoto since the Buick ones look more flat.

 

51 and 52 Buicks have similar-but still different-grille inserts. The other thing to consider is that the DeSoto grille is die-cast and includes that big center section, where as the Buick ones are stainless and are already full-width.

Could be '52 Buick

 

I'd say...they are crooked as hell.

 

Looks like the Desoto nails it. if you remove the fat body coloured centre the grill seems to have the same flowing (or crooked) contour as Macchiarella's car.

 

'47 Buick

 

Detroit Grille sold a "waterfall" looking replacement grille kit for many cars.

 

He handmade the parking lights, he might have made the grille too, will have to look in the little magazines, I can't remember.

 

I remember reading that he made the grille for like $250 in 1955 or so. That seams to be enough to have made each tube and then have it chromed? Saw that on the Kustomrama site.
If you look at each tooth it has the shape of a letter "u" with a foot at each end. Don't think the Buick or Desoto teeth are like that.

 

I want to put some on my 58 chevy apache.

 

You could probably fake it off with any of the pictured grilles, even if it takes two to get enough teeth in the right sizes.

 

That looks pretty damn close, but it doesn't look like the 47 Buick grill curls back in at the bottom.

I don't see where they're crooked.....

 

See post number 42 in this link
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=8990701&highlight=macchiarella#post8990701
Custom Cory posted that he is in contact with the brother of the original builder and can probably answer your question best. I still believe this to be a hnad made grill and not an adaptation of an existing grill.

 

The more I look at it, the more I think that you are correct.

 

Contact ROD & WHEELER on this site. Dennis was doing paint and custom work and was in their circle...(and the club)

 

It appears to me that the center point / peak of each "tooth" is not consistent from left to right. The peak of each should follow an invisible line horizontally across the front of the car. Whoever did it only took into consideration making each one equidistant from eachother and vertical...they missed a key factor.

 

I see what you're saying, but I think that was intentional. I think they are all slightly staggered towards the center, which is why I like it.
See, the front of those Plymouths is kinda odd In that on the face the are pretty flat, but the hood and the latch area stick out quite a bit beyond and the stock grill peaks as well. I've seen people do all sorts of things to try to counteract this, but it usually looks like shit. The most common thing I've seen is sectioning the hood to bring it back a few inches and make the whole front of the car flat.
That's part of what I like about this setup is it looks like they tried to follow the original contour of the front end. I couldn't find any of the car in profile which would help...