VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 '37 1/2 ton grill removal

I want to remove the grill on a 37 truck to do some minor repairs. It appears to be attached by 3 bolts on each side. I removed the panel (chin?) and have easy access to the bolts. I have a few questions before I go any farther and end up with a big headache I could have prevented.

Questions:
* Will the grill wiggle out through the front of the truck once the bolts are removed?

* Is this more complicated than it appears?

* Any tricks to taking it out and re-installing?

So far you have it figured out. Yes, the grill should be able to be turned, right or left, slightly and pulled out the front. It's possible that some metal tabs might be pushed and, or bent, over the inside edge of the grill that might have to be unbent to allow the release of the grill. It's not much more complicated than it appears. Removeal of the chin piece is the key in being able to get to everything, the screws and the tabs. You could find that the tabs on yours aren't bent over the far outside pieces of the grill. No other secrets - remove and reinstall.

Thank you for the quick reply. I'll post a note when the task is complete.

Hi 6 Cylinder;
Do you know if this procedure of removing the grill from the 37 truck, is the same for the pass, car? I know that the grill on the car is 2 inches longer than the truck, I was wondering if that would pose a problem in removing it?
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Thank's JOE"S37

Joe -
I'm sorry, but I have never worked on a car grill.

Hopefully someone will jump in here and give you that information.

From what I can see on the front end blow-up it will be necessary to first remove the radiator. Then reaching in from the engine side you will find the grille mounting bolts along side of the griles. etc.

Well, thanks guy's for the info. Thought I might have been able to side step alot of extra work, taking mine out, but guess not. OHH WE"LL!!
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THANK'S ANYWAY, JOE'S 37

Joe:
It might be worth a shot to try removing it the same way as the truck grill. Worst case scenario would be you'd have to remove the radiator anyway, but if it works otherwise it sure would be less hassel. Early on in the process I thought I might need to remove hood pieces, radiator, etc too. After crawling under and taking a good, long, and hard look, then removing the chin piece and seeing the 6 bolts and bent tabs it sure appeared to be a simplier task than I'd imagined. I have been diverted to other duties, so I have yet to remove the truck grill. Stay tuned.

Hi 37 Blue;
As soon as the weather desides to, warm up a little up hear, I,m going to give it a try. Providing the honey due list does'nt get to long!! It look's like it might work though, after removing the chin guard and bolts, we should be able to juke them out, providing my arm's are long enough to get at the top two bolts! Please keep me posted on your progress.
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Thank's Agin JOE'S 37

Joe:
Yes, I'll keep you posted. I know about those top two bolts too. Our son has longer arms and was able to reach these when we did the inspection. Of course, "Old Dad" took some ribbing.

Update:
The grill came off much easier than I imagined. I removed the hood ornament and dropped it off for replating. I have spent about 6 hours thus far straightening the grill bars and removing minor dents. The grill chrome is in better than average shape, so it will not be replated--yet. I still have more work on the grill to do, including polishing the bars.
I intend to replace the nuts used to hold the grill with new J-type steel spring nuts and new bolts. That should make it easy to reinstall and remove, if needed. The ornament should be done in two weeks, by that time I should have the grill work done and with any luck have "Old Blue" back on the road again by the end of the month.

Funny how some jobs that look difficult turn out to be fairly easy and a job estimated at taking a couple of hours can take a week !

Congrats on getting an "easy" one for once.

One question: Where can you possibly get anything chromed and returned in 2-weeks ??

I use an outfit in Oklahoma City. I've had them do work for me several times. Most, if not all my street rod buddies also use them. Two weeks is the average time for turnaround. I had them do a bumper last year and it took longer, nearly a month. They needed to send it out for metal reworking. They do pretty good work IMHO, at an acceptable price. My buddies all swear by them too and some of them are way beyond anal retentive. I do not know if they do "mail order" stuff.
Send me a PM if you want contact info.

Update on the grill work; it is DONE! Son and I got the grill in fairly easy. We used J-type steel spring nuts and bolts as fastners. After failing in our first attempt, we used epoxy to set the bolts in place. This because the nuts shifted thereby making alignment with the bolts and holes impossible. The top two nuts needed to be ground down to a taper in order to fit. Before replacing the grill we tied thick twine, about 24 inches long, at each corner of the hoizontal grill braces and at the top and bottom of the grill. We figured these would make it easier to adjust and align the grill as needed to fasten with the new bolts. It worked like a charm!

All this started because "Old Blue" needed the hood ornament re-chromed, and the grill bars straightened and polished. I wanted to avoid removing the hood pieces and radiator, which likely would make the primary task easier but entail much more tear down and re-assembly. The chrome work took less time than the straighting and polishing. I used several jigs, jerry-rigged plier-like adaptations, sheet metal pliers, vise grips and thin wood strips as gauges for the straighting. I used a combination of various grit abrasives and buffing wheels in a Dremel tool with a final treatment using a metal polish and microfiber cloth.

The final result is NOT perfect, but at least 1000% better than before. Bottom line---I'm happy with it.