FE-FC Holden Discussion Forum

Can anyone pass on any tips/info on making a custom grille?
I would like to do something like Alex's old grille (http://www.fefcholden.org.au/nsw/clubcars/alexs1.jpg)
Any help appreciated!

Stinky, how creative are you? All it takes is imagination.
Start with an FE grill frame and basically lay out the grille you want - I think Alex's grille was made from EH overiders but someone could correct me if I am wrong.
Attach the overiders to a horizontal bar using nuts and bolts, then bolt the bar into the FE grille using a few of the vertical bars. It can all be neatened up using a wire mesh to hide the bars at the back.
This is meant to be a copy of the old 60's custom Buick grille which was added to a lot of cars back then - unfortunately Buick grilles are a bit hard to find nowadays and a way more expensive than what they were then as well.
This is fairly crude, but I'm sure you get the picture.
Now let your imagination go and see what you can come up with!


Ken

They're actually FJ Grille 'teeth' in Alex's old grille, which now lives in the front of Craig Jordan's FE Sedan.

It's not all that obvious from this shot but the teeth are actually stepped back from the middle to the edges (so the middle one protudes further forward out of the grille than the two around it, and so on back to the end-most ones).  Apparently that was quite some effort to achieve, but makes the grille look better than having them run in a straight line, according to Alex.

cheers
RET

horay! more customs! keep 'em coming. ken is right though, just measure everything up and get out your grinder, welder and some nuts and bolts! if you think about it carefully, you can make the whole thing removable so that if you screw it up, you can unbolt the whole thing and try again.

i began collecting eh overriders before i decided to go with my new grille, they look pretty good, and you can see them used on that green custom fc the guy built in queensland. the one with the continental kit, and volkswagon rear glass. i'm sure you have seen it in street machine or cruzin'.

good luck, can't wait to see some pictures.

with todays computer programs, you can even pre-design your grill to see what it looks like with different variations.

attach is the protypes to my custom grill.  I took photo's of a couple of basic variations and used the computer to do the the more complicated variations.
(sorry about the quality but had to get under the 64kb limit)

Alan

Custom grills......one of my favourite topics.
Well we have had some good advice and ideas thus far, hope your paying attention. Lol. Don't limit yourself, try anything that you think may work. Here is a pic of my current grill.
(http://photo.starblvd.net/~customfc/1-1-2.jpg?i=1034953733)
It uses parts from an FE, Valiant and Chef. Yes, you read right, my grill has stars that once saw duty on the tips of the knobs of a Chef stove. (5 stoves actually) The customisers of the 50's and 60's used whatever they liked to create grills, cupboard knobs, bullets, mesh...whatever works.
If you are interested in recreating my toothed grill, I have attached a doc with some drawing to try and explain how I did it. Remember, this is just my idea of a custom grill. I wanted to create something similar to what the Yanks were doing, but keep it all Holden.
Check out old Aussie Hot Rod mags or current custom mags for ideas. Why not go all out, and change the grill opening completly!
I would be glad to help out in any way. Anything to get another custom on the road and in the face of them pesky restorers. Lol.
custom@idx.com.au
Regards
Alex

hey alex,

have you actually joined the horizontal bars (with the indicators on them) to the existing fe surround? if so how did you do this? the metal is a cast alloy isn't it, so i'd assume you have to tig weld it or something like that?

once i get a hold of a new bonnet (mine has some rust coming through) i am ging to start reshaping th opening itself to better suit my grille.... i'll take some pics when i get some work done (2010?!?!)

Hey Simon.
The new grill has the centre bars and indicators welded to the FE frame. I can't take credit for this work, it was done back in the late 60's by persons unknown. I acquired the frame from Dick Thomas in the club and set about installing it with the centre panel I made for it. I took the frame to Tech when I was doing a hobby panelbeating course and the teacher told me how they used to weld grills years ago when a car was smashed. This is what he said, but I have not tried it.
Back in the 60's, they used to weld grills using an Oxy. I asked what type of filler rod he used, and he said they made their own. They used to take old grills and grind off all the chrome, leaving only the diecast. This was then melted into sticks that they used for welding. Sometimes they would just use the ground down bits without making them into rods. It would help to use bits from the same type of grill, as this would mean the metals were the same. Once the parts were together, they were finished off with copper or brass and filed, and then re-chromed.
I don't know how hard this would be, but I suspect the diecast would not be easy to play with. I figure this is a lot of mucking about, but worth it, as you end up with something unique.
Regards

woah alex,

sounds pretty tricky to me...... think i will try to master metal before i try something like that! (even metal could take a while!!)

glad more members are catching the custom bug....

did you decide to do your bumpers alex?

Hey Simon
I decided to do my front bumper......about 4 years ago. Never got around to doing it. Maybe I should start looking for another bumper to give it a go. Anyone got a spare front bumper?
Regards
Alex