1940 Pickup grille

[nathanmac]

OK so everything I touched today turned out to be a bit of a major, (like everything else on this particular truck), so I decided to retreat from the garage and assemble the grille that's been sitting in our living room for the past month.

In keeping with the theme of hard work, the grille has decided not to play ball. Are the repro grilles supposed to be a little challenging to line up or am I just doing it all wrong?

It seems the sides are a little 'flat' and don't have enough curve to bolt up nicely to the latch panel and lower panel. Some of the holes look as though they won't go anywhere near lining up. Having heard these have a reputation for breaking, I'm a little nervous about the pressure that appears to be needed assembling it before it even gets near the vehicle.

Also the hardware kit for the centre piece has a couple of nuts that didn't fit the screws - I didn't get a grille with my pickup so have nothing to compare it with.

All in all, between the challenging day on the truck and near gale westerly winds today I felt pretty beaten by it all. I hope someone with a bit of experience with these can point me in the right direction, will check back tomorrow. TIA.

 

[TJ]

Who made the repo grille? There are several old repo grilles out there and some fit and some don't. I have not heard anyone complain about the Drake grille. I have one in my 40 standard coupe that fits very good. Did you have any body work done on the fenders? Sometimes body work can change the curve on the fenders.

 

[41ford1]

The grille on mine is a Drake. I made the mistake of taking it off because it didn't fit quite right. I attributed it to sloppy assembly before I aquired the truck. After making adjustments to the front fenders the grille required some finessing to fit up. The sides needed a tweak to meet the fenders as they should. My method was to lay the grille on a blanket on the floor. Kneel on it from the bottom with knee at the center. Pull up on the free end. Do this in steps until the curve is right. The center bar required some gentle rubber mallet work to make it fit. I didn't know about the breakage issue at the time. I guess I lucked out.
As far as your hardware issue: retap or replace the nuts that don't fit. Mine were all there.
Good luck on getting it together.

 

[Roger/Sacramento]

I did a '40 Coupe before with new grill parts and all went easy. I just finished a '41 Pickup and had a lot of trouble getting the front end to work. Just have to treat it like a new girl friend and keep on giving it attention until it works.

 

[nathanmac]

Thanks for the advice. The grille is a brand new Bob Drake unit. I haven't yet taken it out to the garage to fit up as I don't have the guards (fenders) bolted on yet.

Where the hood latch panel top braces sit against the sides (the top grille-to-fender bolt holes), it seems very tight and maybe the cause of the problem?

Maybe it'll just take some timae and patience, but I don't want to go ovalling holes and bending things until I know the best way to go about it.

Many thanks.

 

[Pete Fl/Wi]

I use a Bob Drake on my 40 panel. I had to go slow and round out some of the holes in both the grill parts and fender to get it to fit. As I remember it took me several fittings before I was happy. Good luck.
Pete