Grill makeover…..6.18.15

This car will be totally Jim when he gets done. He’s already rebuilt the engine…added a transmission cooler…fixed the AC ( they installed it upside down)…fixed it so the scoop could be open…rounded the hood corners…made fender skirts…reinforced the visor for highway travel…fixed the front seat so it would move ahead for me….and many things I can’t even think of.

Once the corners on the hood were finished he started on the grill. It had plastic chrome bars and Jim never liked them.

So he took off the grill front…removed the fake stuff…then put it back in so we would still have a vehicle to run to town in. This is our everyday driver.

He and Carl are headed to town….I kinda like this look, but up close you can see the transmission cooler and radiator…

Grill face off….with the new larger transmission cooler.

He has two pieces of the new “real” chrome sections cut and fitted. As I write this I make it sound easy but he was a few days figuring out how to keep them in place and how to fix a crack….

The grill was supposed to fit an 82 to 87 Camero…but not this….so Jim had to fabricate stuff.

And that is something he enjoys…he’d rather look around the shop and find a piece of whatever and make it work…rather than go to town and buy it.

There were places on the back of the grill for bolts….he cut them off…

Then he had to mark the grill where he would shorten it up.

He also notched the frame so the grill would fit better.

 

Getting shorter…..

on the back side all pieces in but not secured yet.

Before                                                                                             After

    

Evidently this car was put together to travel to car shows a couple times a month….not as a daily driver or to tow a camper thousands of mile…as we do.  (It even looks happier.)

This was taken on the Skyline Drive….35 mph for 125 miles….and it handled beautifully….whenever we stopped to check out the view…someone would stop and ask if they could have their picture taken with the Hudson.

Once he gets all the dings and scratches done he will repaint ….