Custom home made grills?

[purebred]

Lets see some pictures of your guys home made grills. I like the originals but sure am interested in the home made stuff, thanks

[k1rodeoboater]

...the only thing custom about mine is I'm going to bolt a bowtie in place of where the letters GMC were on my GMC grill

[markeb01]

Here are a couple of shots of a modified grille I ran on mine a number of years ago, first with clear parking lenses and later with amber. The center bar below the main GMC grille started life as an accessory grille guard from a 1950 Plymouth. I liked the concept but thought it would have looked better with a 1951-52 Oldsmobile grille bar (which I never found):

[Corts60]

I saw this truck in a parking lot last year and even though I am not a fan of square headlights on our trucks, I thought it was very well done.

[markeb01]

Here are a few more that have been posted here or elsewhere on the internet:

[losthope]

I just modified my stock one a little did a write up how i did it in my build thread:

[purebred]

very nice, anymore?

[1963c-10]

Couple I have archieved

[1Bad62Pro/Street]

Alot of pics here:
(( 1960-1966 Chevy/GMC Pickup Truck Restoration/Modification/Customization Ideas ))
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=402277

[LostMy65]

I was wondering what a gmc grill would look like with the center portion from a 64-66 chevy grill.
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[1Bad62Pro/Street]

Grill ideas,
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=364478

[1Bad62Pro/Street]

There's so many possibilities with these trucks I'm amazed there haven't been more customized, back when or now. The cavity is just a blank canvas like a 49 Merc, and virtually anything can be installed.

Many years ago I pulled the GMC letters off mine and installed a bumper overrider bar from a 1950 Plymouth. It fit well and looked pretty cool. I really wanted to take it further but changed directions.

markeb01,

Can you tell me more about the bumper overrider bar. I'm thinking about doing this.
Is this on the bumper guards? Do you still have this?

[1Bad62Pro/Street]

[chevy_mike]

This was on a '65 I got from a friend. It was done back in the 80's.

[clay64ls]

more of a modification but still holding together after 8 years

[markeb01]

markeb01, Can you tell me more about the bumper overrider bar. I'm thinking about doing this. Is this on the bumper guards? Do you still have this?

Yes I still have the bar, since I almost never get rid of anything. I’ve been trying unsuccessfully to find a photo of one on a 1950 Plymouth to show what it looked like in the original installation. Unfortunately they were both rare, not very attractive, and almost every one of the cross bars had chrome which peeled and pitted badly soon after they were built. On the stock Plymouth there was a pair of vertical bridge girders that poked up through the splash pan behind the bumper guards and this bar slid in between them. It was attached at the rear via the thread plates shown. It is made of the same gauge steel as the bumper, so it actually did protect the front end of the car. I thought it might be a nice touch because it was the right size and I actually owned a 1950 Plymouth with one of these rusty monsters on it:

EDIT: I finally found a picture of a 1950 Plymouth with the guard in place:









Typical to all these things the plating was terrible so I had it sandblasted and powder coated. From the front it looked reasonably cool, but from above it was just too rounded and didn’t fit well with the stock GMC grille.

To mount the bar I drilled out the hanging bracket from the GMC grill and removed the support bar holding the letters. The lower powder coated support in the photo below with the chrome letters is the one off my original grille:



I then fabricated triangular plates out of ¼” steel and bolted them to the radiator support with heavy wall steel spacers in back, to correctly set the spacing in correlation to the grille.



When it came time to switch back to the GMC letters, I modified another letter support by removing the vertical arms that originally attached to the upper main grille bar. It doesn’t show very well in the picture above, but the bar with the white letters has angle brackets on the back which bolt to the triangle plates. So currently my GMC letters attach to the triangle plates/radiator support, not the grille.

What I decided would really look perfect was a 1951-1952 Oldsmobile center grille bar because it does match the GMC grille profile. I looked for a couple of years but never found one at a price I was willing to pay. Here’s a Google image of what one looks like:



If you're looking for a cross bar to tie the stock bumper guards together this could be modified to work, or there may be better choices available. If you're looking for something cosmetic only a lot of 50's cars had similar setups, the 54 Chevy passenger car being one. If I missed anything let me know.

[LostMy65]

Here's this one again from a different angle.

[taclem]

This is the coolest that I've seen it is a C-60 grill with the letters removed from the top and placed in the center, then chromed. Would also look cool to remoce the letters from the top and just use the bowtie in the center

[1Bad62Pro/Street]

Originally Posted by markeb01

Yes I still have the bar, since I almost never get rid of anything. I’ve been trying unsuccessfully to find a photo of one on a 1950 Plymouth to show what it looked like in the original installation. Unfortunately they were both rare, not very attractive, and almost every one of the cross bars had chrome which peeled and pitted badly soon after they were built. On the stock Plymouth there was a pair of vertical bridge girders that poked up through the splash pan behind the bumper guards and this bar slid in between them. It was attached at the rear via the thread plates shown. It is made of the same gauge steel as the bumper, so it actually did protect the front end of the car. I thought it might be a nice touch because it was the right size and I actually owned a 1950 Plymouth with one of these rusty monsters on it:

EDIT: I finally found a picture of a 1950 Plymouth with the guard in place:









Typical to all these things the plating was terrible so I had it sandblasted and powder coated. From the front it looked reasonably cool, but from above it was just too rounded and didn’t fit well with the stock GMC grille.

To mount the bar I drilled out the hanging bracket from the GMC grill and removed the support bar holding the letters. The lower powder coated support in the photo below with the chrome letters is the one off my original grille:



I then fabricated triangular plates out of ¼” steel and bolted them to the radiator support with heavy wall steel spacers in back, to correctly set the spacing in correlation to the grille.



When it came time to switch back to the GMC letters, I modified another letter support by removing the vertical arms that originally attached to the upper main grille bar. It doesn’t show very well in the picture above, but the bar with the white letters has angle brackets on the back which bolt to the triangle plates. So currently my GMC letters attach to the triangle plates/radiator support, not the grille.

What I decided would really look perfect was a 1951-1952 Oldsmobile center grille bar because it does match the GMC grille profile. I looked for a couple of years but never found one at a price I was willing to pay. Here’s a Google image of what one looks like:



If you're looking for a cross bar to tie the stock bumper guards together this could be modified to work, or there may be better choices available. If you're looking for something cosmetic only a lot of 50's cars had similar setups, the 54 Chevy passenger car being one. If I missed anything let me know.

Thanks Bud.
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[Leadfoot Lambert]

Here's mine, GMC grill, 55 Buick Roadmaster center bar with C10 horn button in the center

[markeb01]

I like it! Great idea and I've never seen it done before.

[LostMy65]

Using the horn button is a neat idea.

[1Bad62Pro/Street]

More here:
(( 1960-1966 Chevy/GMC Pickup Truck Restoration/Modification/Customization Ideas
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...=402277&page=5

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