1940 Ford Deluxe outer Grille sides - Differences?

mercman from oz

mercman from oz

Well-known member
432727


432726

Take a look at these two Outer Grille Sides for the 1940 Ford Deluxe. Notice that the Bar that the chrome trim attached to is wide on the Grille in the top picture and narrow on the Grille in bottom picture? The Grille in the top picture is Australian, and therefore would have come from Canada originally. I have checked some pictures USA 1940 Ford Deluxe and it appears that these bars that the chrome trim is attached to are all narrow. Very interesting. Has anyone else observed this slight difference?
What are anyone's thoughts on the subject?
 
mercman …...Did you not notice that there are also a different number of louvers AND spaces between those chrome trim strips? 19Fordy brought this to our attention many, MANY eons ago. DD
 
V8COOPMAN Guess that I need glasses! Now that you have pointed it out, there are 9 Grille Bars on the Grille with the wide Bar that holds the small Chrome Trim, while there are 10 Grille Bars on the Grille with the narrow Bar that holds the small Chrome Trim. Were both styles available in the USA?
 
mercman from oz said:
V8COOPMAN Guess that I need glasses! Now that you have pointed it out, there are 9 Grille Bars on the Grille with the wide Bar that holds the small Chrome Trim, while there are 10 Grille Bars on the Grille with the narrow Bar that holds the small Chrome Trim. Were both styles available in the USA?
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Merc....Seems like it's an EARLY/LATE thing. Click the link below for a bunch more info.


https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=204792&highlight=1940+deluxe+grill+louvers


Also, be sure to click the additional link in 19Fordy's post #2.


Funny, I have a nice '40 Deluxe coupe that I've owned for going on 24-years now and I've never even thought to count my louvers.....one of these days, maybe! DD
 
interesting ,I friend of mine was rattling on about this exact same thing a few months ago he is cobbling a 40 coupe together I will have to look at his stuff
 
This are 19Fordy's comments on an earlier Tread on this Subject.

The early design was replaced prior to January 1940. If your car is truly a '39 production, it would most likely have had the early design installed. The early design had 31 louvers.
The second and final design had 34 louvers.

Along with the early design, the rustless steel trim would have typically had squared off ends, not the most commonly witnessed "speared" ends.
The design of the trim was changed simultaneously along with the grille.

While there may have been more than two variations of the grilles, the engineering release from Ford dictates only two distinct designs. Any variations would have been most likely due to manufacturing oversight.
 
My best friend was Oscar Lasko who passed away a few years
ago. He owned Lasko Metal Products in West Chester, Pa. He
made all the Lasko fans you see in Walmarts and other stores.
At the end of WWII his fathers business was almost bankrupt,
Him and his brother Harry had a request from Pep Boys to make
1940 and 1941 Ford grills. They made 10's of thousands of them,
I think some were Stainless steel. I am sure there are plenty of
them still in cars and parts piles. They saved the business. G.M.
 
G.M. said:
My best friend was Oscar Lasko who passed away a few years
ago. He owned Lasko Metal Products in West Chester, Pa. He
made all the Lasko fans you see in Walmarts and other stores.
At the end of WWII his fathers business was almost bankrupt,
Him and his brother Harry had a request from Pep Boys to make
1940 and 1941 Ford grills. They made 10's of thousands of them,
I think some were Stainless steel. I am sure there are plenty of
them still in cars and parts piles. They saved the business. G.M.
Click to expand...


Interesting! I own a couple of those Lasko "blow gizmos"….GOOD units! Unfortunately, I only own ZERO of Lasko's '40 grills! DD
 
The "wide" space where the trim goes is the early version. The VERY early or maybe pre production trim that goes there was angled at the ends and not pointed.
 
GRILLE LOUVERS:
There were two distinct designs of these panels. The first design, installed through approximately November, 1939, had a total of thirty-one louvers. Both the right (01A-16140-A) and left (01A-16141-A) panels had eleven louvers at the top section,
ten at both the center and lowest section - subsequently the spaces between each group of louvers was much wider than the second and last design.

Both the right (01A-16140-B) and left (01A-16141-B) panels of the second and last design had a total of thirty-four louvers. The top section had twelve louvers while the middle and lowest section each had eleven.

GRILLE TRIM:
Two distinct designs of rustless steel moldings were utilized during the production of 1940 Deluxe models. A total of four pieces were installed per grille assembly. The first design had blunt (squared off) ends.
The engineering drawings clearly indicate the trim was redesigned and the second, final design released for production (Job #1) on July 11, 1939. In reality, the first design moldings were installed on a number of vehicles. There can be little doubt this would have been a very limited number of vehicles and most likely only upon the first design grille louvers.

As the second and final design of trim was introduced for Job #1, nearly all vehicles would have received this trim design. It had a spear tip end, similar to the body moldings.
 

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Thanks to all for this great information. All very interesting. This is the grille on very early Australian 1940 Ford Deluxe Sedan. Just for your interest, this 1940 Ford Deluxe Sedan (Body number 388) came from the Factory with 1939 Ford Tear Drop Tail Lights which is not a one off. Over the years, I have seen several with this feature. I have a production figure of 1656 Ford Deluxe Sedans produced in Australia from 1940 to 1942. Because of the mid-year introduction of the 1940 Fords, this figure would include 1939 Fords, so you can see that there were not many 1940 Fords of any body style sold here, and very few remain.
 
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Here is a rear shot of the Australian 1940 Ford Deluxe Sedan with 1939 Ford Tear Drop Tail Lights mentioned above. As mentioned, this anomaly is not an isolated case, as in the past, I have seen a few other un-tampered with 1940 Ford Sedans with these same early model Tail Lights. 1940 was the final year that Ford Australia offered a Roadster (yes, you read correctly) and a Convertible. These 1940 open cars (and 1939 model open cars) used the carry-over 1938 open car body, so all 1940 Ford Roadsters and Convertibles had Tear Drop Tail Lights.
 
I have an early '40 coupe (November 1939 production) It has the early grille sides and has the original center grille. What's interesting is it has the later side grille stainless trim pieces just like mercman's photo.
 
TJ said:
I have an early '40 coupe (November 1939 production) It has the early grille sides and has the original center grille. What's interesting is it has the later side grille stainless trim pieces just like mercman's photo.
Click to expand...

I have no doubt...
By November there were already a LOT of '40 Fords built. Most likely some of the first design grille louvers were remaining but the squared off end trim - used up.
One must keep in mind, many parts were made long before actual car production began.
So, even in the case of this trim that were changed for "job 1" (that's the first '40 to be built), the reality is there were a lot of the first design parts already near the assembly line.
 
Bob Gregorie had a photo of one of the full size design models of a 1940 deluxe in his collection of photographs that went into the book about Edsel Ford & Bob Gregorie. It had the 38/39 style teardrop tail lights too. These design models were fabricated several years if not more before any of the designs went into production. An example was the 1948/49 Mercury design model which is almost identical to the type that went into production in late 1948. Edsel Ford signed off on acceptance of that design just before he died in 1942. With this in mind, a person can see that they were trying to stay well ahead of the game. The war really slowed things to a stop though or these models would have come out in the mid 40s instead of the late 40s.
 
mercman from oz: Perhaps my eyes are foolong me or maybe it's the angle of the photo but. is it posssible that the small piece of louvre trim in the photo is on up side down? It looks like it should be flipped end to end to be more "balanced"? Looks tilted now.
 
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