65 grill restoration thread

[Rich P.]

I am in the process of restoring 3 original 65 grills and was wondering if there might be any interest for me to post the process.

Rich

[Jim D.]

Re: 65 grill restoration thread

I'm interested.

Jim

[Joel T.]

Re: 65 grill restoration thread

I am in the process of restoring 3 original 65 grills and was wondering if there might be any interest for me to post the process.

Rich

Rich;

Me too, I have a '65 grill which could use some TLC.

Joel

[Ashley S.]

Re: 65 grill restoration thread

Add me to the list as well...

[James W.]

Re: 65 grill restoration thread

I am in the process of restoring 3 original 65 grills and was wondering if there might be any interest for me to post the process.

Rich

Rich,

Please do so. I am in the process of restoring a '65 and that is one thing on the list that still needs to be done.

Thanks,

James West

[Rich P.]

Re: 65 grill restoration thread

Hey guys thanks for the interest.

I'll break this down into 3 or 4 different sections and it will take several weeks to complete, thats because the polisher takes 4-6 weeks and the anodizer takes a few days.
First will be disassembly
Second will be identifing an original grill from a repro
Third will be chosing the right rivets
Fourth will be the restoration of the center 3 sections
And fifth will be assembly

I'll log hours put in as well as out sourced costs, like polishing, plating, shipping and rivets. So at the end you can decide if this is something you would concider doing.

Please ask as many questions as you have and also add suggestions you think might make anything easier.

Rich

[Rich P.]

Re: 65 grill restoration thread

First I'll start by listing all the tools needed to disassemble the grill.

Hammer
Cut Off wheel (w/3" wheel)
Flat blade screwdriver (thin)
Die Grinder (w/cobalt bit)
9/32" 1/4" deep socket
3/32" flat punch
Also helpfull is masking tape to tape the aluminum surround while grinding the rivets.

Rich

[Rich P.]

Re: 65 grill restoration thread

Lets start the disassembly process. The first thing to do is to remove the rivets that hold the horizontal bar brackets. There are a few different ways to do this and I'll show just 2 of them.
One is with a cut off wheel and the other is with a die grinder. Both ways have the same objective, to remove either the head or peened or squished side of the rivet. That is done so you can remove the bar brackets.
Care must be taken so as to not damage the soft aluminum surround as that will be polished and reanodized later.

You can see from the pictures that you just remove enough material to allow the bracket to come off.

[Rich P.]

Re: 65 grill restoration thread

More pictures of the rivet grinding process. This time with a die grinder.

[Rich P.]

Re: 65 grill restoration thread

Now once you have ground all the ends off the rivets on the hrizontal bar brackets its time to remove them. Take the thin blade screw driver and hammer and then very gently tap the blade inbetween the bracket and grill surround untill it pops lose. Repeat this on all the brackets and remove them.

[Rich P.]

Re: 65 grill restoration thread

Now that you have all 3 horizontal bar sections removed you need to disassemble the 4 grill surround pieces. This will be done in the same way as the center sections EXCEPT you need to be extra carful grinding the rivets down to remove them because you don't have the metal bracket to act as a buffer between the cutting tool and the very soft aluminum. Anyhow just carefully grind the rivets down like before and using the hammer and thin blade screwdriver seperate the surround pieces.

[Rich P.]

Re: 65 grill restoration thread

More surroud seperation shots.

[Rich P.]

Re: 65 grill restoration thread

Now that the 4 grill surround pieces have been seperated you will be left with a dozen or so rivets still in them. These will have to be removed in the same way by grinding them but this time you will have to use the punch, hammer and socket to remove them. Thake the socket and use that as a backing for the surround and place it with the unground side of the rivet in the socket opening then from the other side use the hammer and punch to remove the rivets.

[Ray K.]

Re: 65 grill restoration thread

Count me also. I've got two original grilles and I could use your expertise. Hope you can also help us in identifying where to locate a couple of my missing horizontal brackets . . . . . .

[Tom K.]

Re: 65 grill restoration thread

thanks rich, this is a great teach. i'll be following along