VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 37 Chevrolet Grill height at center bar?

The grill in my coupe is 30" at the center bar.
I also have 2 spare grills that are 30"
I have a contact that has a 37 grill that is 31" at the center bar.
I told him that is a truck grill as I made that mistake years ago at a swap meet, buying a perfect grill and once home finding it was too tall for my coupe.
He swears it was removed from a 37 sedan...
Anyone know whats up here?
I certainly have always thought coupes and sedans had the same grill and grill shell and that the truck was 3/4"-1" taller....
HELP!
Craig

You are correct!

According to my Parts manual, there was one grill for all cars (GA & GB) and another for commercial vehicles. Coupe & sedan are the same.

Thought so.. but still wonder why he has a 31" tall grill from his sedan?
Ive seen pics.. it sure dont look like a cobbled up job with a truck grill shell forced in...
Maybe he is measuring somewhere else... I get 30" at the front face of the center bar.. top to bottom.

Hi Craig, I haven't really measured the grill on my 37MD sedan, but I was told by a parts vender at IOLA that the truck grill is 2 inches shorter than the car's. He was telling me this as I was walking away with the shorter truck grill. So he let me exchange it for the car grill. Got home and the grill fit right in. Now, someone please correct me if I'm wrong on this. Hope this helps Craig.
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Joe's 37

I had the opposite experience... at a large swap meet I found a very nice 37 Chevy grill for $20... yea a long time ago!!!
Got home and it was something like 3/4" or a full 1" too tall for my coupe.. ran an ad in the local paper and sold it as "A Truck Grill" and found a happy buyer for a profit...lol
I certainly think trucks would be taller than passenger cars at the grill...
anyone have exact measurements?

HI guys. My '37 1/2 ton truck grille is a fairly sad puppy, but is is about 32" at the center (I say about because I used a tape measure, and the bottom of it has come apart somewhat.

Craig,

I have both a 37 car and a 37 1/2 ton. I just measured the grille as best I could (they're both installed, so I couldn't get to the real edges of the grilles because on both top and bottom they sit in a recess. The amazing thing that I discovered is that the center height is VERY close to being the same height, i.e., 29 1/2 inches (probably your 30" would be correct if out of the vehicles). It's possible that the truck grille could be another 1/2 or 3/4" inch taller, but probably more like 1/2", if that.

The big difference, however, is in the width. I measured across the grilles at the furthest point, i.e., toward the top, where the grille flairs out to a point on each side. The car grille measures approximately 21" tip to tip, while the truck grille is approximately 24" tip to tip! So, the big difference in the grilles is the width, not the height.

I hope this is helpful.

Jim