59 Chevy Apache Grill

Hi! This morning, I thought I’d make mention of the grill that I chose for my build. My truck is going to be a little flashy as chrome bolt on stuff looks good to me, but so does painted parts, but everyone has his/her own taste.;)

My truck came with pretty much nothing on the front; no bumper, grill, etc., So finally in the search I came across a pre-owned grill! or in the days from not so long ago, “Used”

I found this grill from a man out of California, I believe Craigslist. The man explained to me that it was off of his 59 Apache and so he had it hanging on his wall in his garage for the past 30 years! So, I figured it must be in pretty good condition, at least the front did!

One has to keep in mind about that era of the ’50s and for a few decades to follow~ if a friend’s car broke down, you might hear, “hey, can you give me a push?”  So the person in the truck no doubt pulled up ever so closely engaging bumper to bumper, then magically the person in the car being pushed would “pop the clutch” to start their car, however, damage probably occurred in doing so! So, in my case, the brackets that affix the grill to the truck were smushed or crunched a bit.

The inside of my grill was suffering from surface rust, but cleaned up OK for my purposes. It’s the outside that I’d like to look nice!

I cleaned it up as best I could, then put a coat of Rustoleum to hopefully inhibit the rate of rust. If you look closely at the bracket, this one got the brunt of being crunched a bit, enough that I had to cut it off and take it to my vise to salvage it/straighten it! You can’t get this part in a reproduction!

So, after beating on it for a while, I was satisfied with the outcome, then used my larger than life pop rivet gun and affixed the brackets  with 1/4″ pop rivets! This bracket is not going anywhere!;)

The lenses, I replaced as new lenses will brighten up the old grill~ but an upgrade to the plug for the park light was to incorporate a turn signal (modernization) as well as a parking light. It’s a simple upgrade in which the parts can be purchased at Classicparts.com and probably from other vendors as well.

All in all, the grill from long ago is back in action! It’s not perfect, but adds character to the truck vs buy a new Chinese reproduction! This grill has historical significance in that it has been around the country or at least a county! I hope I can find the mans email address to send him a picture and find out a little more about his grill!;)

Beauty in the eye of the beholder!

I hope you enjoyed this short blog, I’ve slowed down on blogging a bit, but I go in splurges in writing blogs;)  Please sign up and get notifications as I post!  Your car enthusiast friend! dne’ 😉