After-market grills?

A neighbor down the street has an after-market billet-style grill on his car similar to the one in the picture attached. I think the horizontal orientation of the slots would look really great on a B.

I thought about picking one of these up for whatever car is cheapest (since I'll be cutting it up anyway) and working with the fins to try to fit into an existing MGB grill housing. Possible or no?

Does anyone know of any aftermarket grills for the B or is stock pretty much all that's available?

I did a google search and nothing popped out. You probably have the right idea about cutting down another grill to fit. The good part is it would be fairly easy to mount, lots of existing screws, holes, etc. A couple of simple brackets would do the trick. The challenging part would be to find a grill that wold have the right curve to it. That Mustang one in your picture looks like it would be pretty darn close. Maybe a local accessory shop who has a number of grills you could match to your car.

Recess it into a fishmouth opening. But you've got a '79, no?

Derek's idea of recessing in a fish mouth would work well as it would give you side finishers and you wouldn't have to worry so much about that curvature.

Are you converting to chrome bumpers?

losmorob Wrote:

Even back in the day, we were putting wire mesh grilles in Spridgets but it never caught on with the MGB crowd. I cant remember any alternate grilles being available.

You might also look at the late chrome grille. The plastic mesh inserts unscrew esily and can be used for templates.

Britcot.com has stainless wire mesh grilles made up for B's!

If you go to this page, go down a ways to see a different sort of stainless mesh grille which is more reminiscent of vintage Brit cars of the 20s and 30s. http://www.cibolas7.net/17963.html

bobmunch Wrote:

I did something similar with stainless wire mesh I found at a local auto parts store. Not as nice as the one that Bob has on his site, but it only cost me about $10. I used the plastic inserts as a template and cut them out with tin snips.

Just be aware that a tighter mesh will reduce air flow, which can lead to overheating problems.

http://americanmesh.com/airflowmesh.htm

I've got a stainless steel mesh grill for a B that I thought I could get to fit my Midget, but it won't work. I'll let it go for what I paid for it ($50 +shp) if anyone is interested.

Mister Jones Wrote:

I made mine from aluminum expanded metal. did'nt like how the cb grill fit in the rb hole.

You can't really see it on my uploaded pic but I have flat black painted hardware cloth replacing the (very damaged) aluminum grille on the '67. Always thought it looked very "racy" that way. Odd things in there are driving lights that don't work any more but I didn't bother to remove yet.

I put aluminum expanded metal into my fishmouth grille too. I think it looks better than the stock configuration, different from the polished stuff everyone else is running. I painted it black, as original for my grille.

Jeff do you have a good picture of the fishmouth with your custom insert? I can't see much in the action shot you have of the '71

Thanks

Its on the basement floor right now and in horrible need of repair. I still haven't picked up a good lower panel, so its UGLY! I don't think you really want to see it!

Yeah we would. It sounds interesting and we are capable of seeing around a few dents.

After doing a big pita job on my A8 a few years back (changing leaking oil cooler pipes), I'm sipping on a couple of beers waiting letting it run and checking for leaks...I want it to get hot. So anyway, I get bored waiting, spy this sheet of stainless mesh I've got for another project and next thing you know...


http://www.pegasusautoracing.com/group.asp?GroupID=SCREEN

Here is a source for sheets of stainless mesh in varying pattern pitches:

http://www.pegasusautoracing.com/group.asp?GroupID=SCREEN

I got bored and made this with a sheet of the medium sized stuff for the other car:

http://forums.audiworld.com/a8/msgs/136107.phtml

It looks better in person. The trick is to give it some 3D dimension. If you made a cardboard template of the opening, transferred it to the middle of an oversized piece of mdf, then cut it out with a jigsaw and kept both pieces, you could round the edges of the inner piece or shape it any way you want, lay the mesh on top of it, then press the outer form over it and the edges would all be pulled back. In other words, make male and female forms from mdf, to help shape the stainless wire mesh.

bobmunch Wrote:

Here ya go. Hopefully you can see past the dust and the fact its been beat up a little stashed in the basement for a year?