VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 41 bug screen

Does anyone offer a bug screen for the grill or the radiator of a '41. I have one on my '55, and it catches several bugs on tours, avoiding the need to pick them out of the radiator.
Sid

There was an accessory bug screen for 41. I don't know if there are reproductions made or not. A piece of screen door screening fitted in front of the radiator would do the trick and not look as bad as the accessory ones that fitted in front of the grille. Just my opinion.
Charlie

Nope. Some after market one's but not like the Orig. I have 2 OEM's, fun to use now and then.

Michael41

Mike,
I've been trying to figure out when it would be "fun" to run a bug screen. Do you mean just to show off? Is that fun? Doesn't your grille look better without that screen a-hanging on it? Hmmm.

Now, they are practical items where folk are subject to run into a swarm of cicadas a hatchin'. I've run into that situation in Mississippi and Louisiana (somewhere along there on I-20). That was back in April (I think) of 75 whilst on the way to Pate's south of Fort Worth. I was driving the 41 conv.

They were so big that the first one hit so hard and with such a bang that I thought I'd been shot at. I was both surprised and astonished. Then all heck broke loose and they were hitting in great numbers for a right good ways. I had to slow down to 70 or thereabouts to save the windshield. It was late at night and I didn't want to pull off down there in the bayou country. You know.

Those cicadas made a splatter on the windshield about 2-3 inches in diameter. They were big. I didn't have a bug screen on and they didn't plug the radiator but that could have happened.


Anyway, I've run into them OK also. I think FL gets right many bugs of one kind or another to justify a bug screen during certain periods of the year.

We seldom get enough bugs in NC (you know) to worry about them. Just some pesky little mosquitos now and then.
Charlie

BTW: I suppose those chicados come out about every 17 (or is it 14. Don't know) years or so. I don't know the cycle. Maybe somebody else has experienced them and can enlighten us.

BTW2: Mike, Do you run into any large bugs there in Southern California?

Every seven years.

Na, not many bugs in So. Cal. Especially at the beach where I live. I did hit a Segal one night, talk about a "thump" but it was in my Mercedes.

I tried the bug screen on the 41 to see how it fit and what it looks like. Actually looked ok. Kind-a-fun, but still, we don't have many bugs.

I was driving {newer car} from Chicago to Wisconsin once and hit "hatch" of some sort of katydid things {?} Wow, even the wipers could not keep up with the bugs.

I had a neighbor that was a botanist and it was kind-a-normal for them to look at your radiator after a trip to see what bugs they could find.

I've seen the bug screen on ebay for sale now & then. Don't remember the prices.

enjoy the ride,
Michael41

Cicadas are REAL bad when you're riding a motorcycle!

But what you really need a bug screen for is the little black critters (Lovebugs?) that swarm down the road by the thousands! Maybe they swarm other places, too, but I think they target roads. Those things can flat close off a radiator! And black out a windshield! And if you don't wash them off while they are still fresh, they are pretty difficult to get off.

They be a good reason to outfit your old car with a bug screen/bra combo that covers everything except the lights and windshield.... Or just don't do any night driving where they occur

We've got more than our fair share of bugs in Mississippi. I remember driving on an old highway late one night in my '55 and the bugs were hitting the windshield so often it sounded like a machine gun. Last week I bought some fiberglass window screen, and I'll make a bug screen out of that to drape in front of the radiator on my '41. I might make one for my '69 Malibu too.

Richard
Dont ride your motorbike through a swarm of bees wearing an open face helmet, it isnt fun afterwards.
Tony

Try grasshoppers. Once when I was young and dumb, thinking that dresser riders were sissies, I was in a neighboring town on my bike when I noticed millions of grasshoppers in a cloud over the town about 50 feet up. As I watched the cloud started getting lower and lower. Realizing that I didn't have a windshield I headed toward the house but didn't make it before the cloud made it to ground level. I had green goo all over. I started to realize that maybe dresser riders weren't sissies after all.

Tiny,
This is not meant to be a comment specifically for you. Wisdom is not God given, it is learned. Some get it from wise men and others need the experience. Way too many times I ignored the first and suffered the second. Stupid is doing it again just to see if it would happen twice.