Broken Grill Repair/Restoration

[Furiousone]

Hello. I may be buying a mid-'60's A or C body in the near future. One of the cars I have my eye on is a '66 Fury I. The problem with possibly buying it, is the right half of the grill has some slats that are damaged and one or two of them look like they were cut/torn in half. These grills are made out of tin? I know they are thin and lightweight. Who would you all recommend repairing/restoring it and bright-dipping it again? Who's the best in the industry? Are they reproduced? Thanks.

 

[Wollfen]

Those grills are made of Anodized aluminum and are hardened too. It can't really be welded unless you have the thing dipped to remove the anodizing then have it put in an oven to soften the metal again to weld it. Then it would have to go through the process of heating and anodizing to bring it back to originality. Better bet is to simply pick up another grille, The 66 grilles are not hard to find and are far less expensive than repairing the one in the car.

 

[1Fury1]

There are several of these grills out there but the good ones are usually attached to a car that needs it. Mine fortunately was straight so just used some mothers on it. Could be brighter but it's fine from a few feet away.

 

[Furiousone]

Thanks for the reply. How much power is your 360 Poly making? I've heard of 318 Polyspheres. Did you use the heads from a 318 BB on a 360? Is there a company that restores these grills? I'm sure there is. I'd like to know, if I have trouble finding a grill section. I take it, these cars had 3-piece grills. Thanks.

 

[1Fury1]

Yes 3 piece grill.
360 crank, 4" bore, CP Pistons w H beam rods, stock 318 poly heads ported and polished, forget the cam specs, TTI headers and dynomax muffs, slayer 750 carb on Weiand intake, Mallory ignition. Made 392 hp and 388 ft lbs on the dyno.

 

[The Horvaths]

The '66 grill is very easy to find. Don't bother repairing it. There were two NOS on eBay a while ago.

 

[Furiousone]

TWO nos? Wow. Nice power out of a seldom-built engine! Way to go.

 

[Furiousone]

So you used the stock block. Nice idea to use that original engine and build whats there.

 

[65Fury440]

Made 392 hp and 388 ft lbs on the dyno

Yowza!!