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1928 to 1939 Ford Custom Bar Grille Inserts [by: Halloweenking]
Hotrodders Bulletin Board: Knowledge Base: Body-Exterior: Articles

Are you sick of the same old grilles? Straight vertical bars, polished, chrome, painted. Boring, right? Don't want them in a custom car, so make a custom grille! It's a lot easier than you think. If you can use a saw, a welder, and a tape measure, you can make one. From mild to wild and anything in between.

• First thing you will need is a plan, a theme, or a picture.
  
  
• Second thing you will need is a template for the grille size and shape. Cardboard works well, so will poster board.
  
  
• Measure. I'll say it again: measure!
  
  
• Materials. The materials you will need are stainless steel or aluminum (if you plan on polishing it) or regular steel (painting) tubing 1/4" x 0.65" wall thickness. Also some 18-22 gauge sheet of the same material, and a roll of aluminum binding wire (for a pre-model).
  
  
• A MIG or TIG welder, teardrop shape dolly and hammers (including lead), smooth jaw vise, a selection of different size glass jars, pipe and a wide selection of small hand rasps (files), a torch, saw, and polishing supplies (if you plan to polish).

Now you're ready to build. On your template, draw a rough sketch of what you want. Try to make it as precise as possible. Use a dark pen or marker. Now that you have your design in ink on a precisely sized piece of paper, trace the outline on a piece of 1" thick plywood. Set the drawing aside.

(Skip this step for '31-'32 -- these grilles only need an outer piece of tubing with mounting tabs to fit into the grille shell). Cut two 5" wide 4' long strips from the sheet. Now anneal the material by using an open flame from a torch or any other high heat source. This will allow the metal to be easily formed. Then, set the annealed material aside. With a router, trace out the outline on the plywood -- at most 3/4" through with a bit the same gauge as the material. Now you can easily form the outline of the grille inset. Fit the metal, cut down the center to have two equal halves. Make a wooden hammer form from a solid hard wood like maple or oak. The hammer form should be shaped like the grille's frame. For '28-'30 and '33-'34, it should have a 2.5" height and a 1.75" width. Now, by hand, first try to smoothly form the material over the hammer form from inside out over. Use the hammers to slowly aid the material along. The hard wood surface and the lead hammer will not stretch the material so any stretching needed will have to be done with a different hammer. After each side is formed, you can weld the two together and smooth the metal with a file and sand paper. Now that the basic grille is complete, it's time for the insides.

Now bring back the sketch template. Using the aluminum wire, cut and fit each piece to the design. Try to make it as close and smooth as possible. After you cut and fit each piece both to the flat drawing and shape of the grille, number and measure each piece. This will be your measurement for the real thing. Now if you're ready for the real thing, bring in the tubing and anneal each length. After annealing, size and cut each piece 0.5" longer than the wire for safety. Using the vise or the heel of your fist on the teardrop dolly, flatten the tubing partially. Just enough to still be able to blow air through slightly. Now use the different size bottles and pipe and other things you've gathered to achieve the curves necessary for the design. Make sure they fit snugly, both to each other and to the grille frame. If not, make the needed adjustments. If they do, you're ready to polish each piece individually and use a file to bevel each end that will be welded to something. After beveling and polishing, you can weld each of the pieces together. Then you can do your final rasping and smoothing of the welds and final polish, and you can add your clear coat.

By beveling the ends you can create a valley for the welds thus resulting in a smoother, neater, more flowing piece. This works very well with flames, but any design can be done.