65 grill restoration thread

[Rich P.]

Re: 65 grill restoration thread

Well it took a few months but I finally have the grill just about ready for reassembly. I will have the parts back from the anodizer next week.
As I said before I would post all expenses involved with this project.
The charge for fixing all the road rash, dents, dings and twists in the 4 aluminum grill surround pieces goes like this:
51" upper trim.........75.00
42" lower trim........115.00
2, 7" side pieces 120.00 for both
For a total of.........310.00.

The anodizing cost was quoted at 100.00 for the 4 parts.

Now keep in mind the polishing could be done at home if you are willing to put the time in.

So the polishing and refinishing will run 410.00.

As I said above I should be able to finish up this grill next week and show the results here.

Rich

[Clark K.]

Re: 65 grill restoration thread

I need my '65 grille restored. Please include me.
-Clark

[Rich P.]

Re: 65 grill restoration thread

After 3 months of waiting for the polisher and platter I am finally ready to reassemble the first of 4 grills I am restoring.

Before any riveting takes place you have to completly assemble the 4 grill surround pieces along with the 3 horizontal bar sections. There is ALOT of play in the parts so this is why you need to assemble it. I use a coup;e dozen 6-32 pan head screws, nuts and flat washers, any bigger and the screw will jam in the holes. Once I have temporarily assembled the parts I test fit it into the car to make sure the alignment of the parts is correct.
Tomorrow I will start to rivet everything back together.

Rich

[Rich P.]

Re: 65 grill restoration thread

The grill has been fit to the car and everything lines up very nicely. Tomorrow I will remove one screw at a time and rivet it together and we should be done.

Rich

[Rich P.]

Re: 65 grill restoration thread

We we able to rivet the grill together it took a little over an hour to do. It is a very delicate process I liken it to a coriagraphed dance between the person holding the backing tool and the person swinging the hammer and holding the setting tool. It has to be done in such a way as to transfer the energy from the hammer into the rivet, even though they are soft 1100F aluminum they are some what difficult to set.

This was a learning experiance and there are a few things I found I would do differntly next time but I am very pleased with the results.

Rich

[James R.]

Re: 65 grill restoration thread

Rich,

You did a great job on the grill. Thanks for sharing your journey with us.

Jim