Fired up the grille for the 4th!

[Hoosier Daddy]

Get it, the grille.

Did a little project today, I thought I would share it with the group.

Pulled the grille for a pattern.

grille1.JPG

Got some cold rolled mild steel with 3/16" perf on 1/4" centers and started shaping it to fit the oem grille's contours.

grille2.JPG

grille3.JPG

After I was happy with the top I mocked it up to mark the sides and bottom.

grille4.jpg

Then made some more relief cuts and folded those edges back.

grille5.jpg

grille6.JPG

grille7.JPG

grille8.JPG

grille9.JPG

grille10.JPG

Still have to finish the lower mounts to use the factory clips and get it to powder coat, but I'll probably wait until my bumpers are ready to go too (teaser).

[bknudtsen]

Nice fab work! Can't wait to see what you have in store for bumpers. Thx for posting!

Brad

[ujoint]

Love it! Looks great.

[notmiller]

Awesome! I was thinking about building something similar until I found one for dirt cheap. I don't think mine would've turned out as clean as yours, though! Nice platen table, too. I've always wanted one of those.

[Dirtytires]

Looks good. I like the idea. It kind of looks like a Satoshi Grill.

[Hoosier Daddy]

Thanks guys!
I looked around aftermarket stuff briefly and couldn't find much. Besides, nothing like spending WAY too much time and money doing something yourself, right?

[notmiller]

Thanks guys!
I looked around aftermarket stuff briefly and couldn't find much. Besides, nothing like spending WAY too much time and money doing something yourself, right?

Agreed! If only I could convince my wife of that!

[Hoosier Daddy]

Agreed! If only I could convince my wife of that!

Ha ha, I thought you already had! The good ones tolerate our hobbies, the great ones participate in them. You sir, seem to have a great one.

I saw the fab work in your build, nice work! Not everyone knows what that table is when they see it, I wanted one for years before finding the right deal on this one.

[notmiller]

Ha ha, I thought you already had! The good ones tolerate our hobbies, the great ones participate in them. You sir, seem to have a great one.

Indeed, but she regulates how much i'm allowed to do myself. I suppose I'd be a lonely hermit living in my garage without that, though!

How did you do the mounts for the grille? Did you use that internal frame you have cleco-ed in one of the pics?

[Hoosier Daddy]

You can see the frame clecoed in pics two and three. It was only used to help me rough in the curvature. I made several relief cuts to get the contour I needed and then welded the cuts to keep the shape. Look at the top of the grille in pic 6 you can see the weld lines. Same thing for the sides and bottom. With a little planning and a lot of luck, I was able to use three of the holes in the top surface for mounting in the factory locations. I have not finished the lower mounts, but I will be using the factory clips on a small tab. I'll get some more pics when complete.