72 grill restoration

72GY9Runner · Post by **72GY9Runner** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 6:29 pm

Has anyone ever had any luck in repairing damage to the honecomb grilles for the 72 Road Runners? Mine has several breaks in it, and I've been trying to figure out how to reattach the loose pieces to the rest of the grille.

I know that welding will be way to hot, and I've tried soldering both with an electric gun and flame. The grille just sucks up the heat before I can ever get the solder to run.

I'm thinking that my only hope at this point may be epoxy, but I don't think that will be strong enough.

The grille is useable, but I'd really like to clean it up if possible. For me, spending hundreds of dollars on a replacement isn't a sane option.

One thought that I had, was to make a new one, but I couldn't find any metal out there that was perforated in this way.

Any ideas?

Dave

fourforty6pac · Post by **fourforty6pac** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 7:59 pm

Sell it to me, then you wont have to worry. I picked up a nos one about 20 years ago, it is the only part I have and I havnt seen a 72 RR grill or even parts for for sale for quite some time. I had a chance to pick up a complete grill this past summer but I didnt act fast enough. Next time I will. Good luck!

scottish440 · Post by **scottish440** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 11:11 pm

I have some mesh that was stamped out...the hex is a little different
size....unnoticably so.....it is flat and does not have the folded edges.

it is not too bad to make it work..fold some tabs...little paint...looks
original....scott

72GY9Runner · Post by **72GY9Runner** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 3:50 pm

Do you know where you got the sheet of perforated metal? I've checked with the local suppliers here, and they will only sell me a 3ft x 10ft.

Dave

roelbest · Post by **roelbest** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 5:28 pm

I've been looking for a grill for about a year, found one, but for a lot of $$$$$. I still think it's worth it as my car had a Satellite grill!!

xray · Post by **xray** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 9:32 pm

roelbest wrote:I've been looking for a grill for about a year, found one, but for a lot of $$$$$. I still think it's worth it as my car had a Satellite grill!!

Where do ya park it??????? LOL Congrats!! I'm jealous.

roelbest · Post by **roelbest** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 2:57 pm

Xray, your'e welcome to come and have a sniff around, but the RR is parked here on a very small island called th United Kingdom

JosephGiannini · Post by **JosephGiannini** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 3:21 pm

If it is steel and you are lookign to weld it you can. However you need to get the right welidng setup ofr temp metal thickness etc etc.
Now with brazing the grille with silver solder. you have to sand the coating off. Preheat the metal. Flux the metal. Tin it. And spread with a putty tool. Now did you tin the metal? Did you flux the metal? Ar eyou using the right solder? Make sure it is acid core sheet metal solder.

pigman · Post by **pigman** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 4:07 pm

xray wrote:
roelbest wrote:I've been looking for a grill for about a year, found one, but for a lot of $$$$$. I still think it's worth it as my car had a Satellite grill!!

Where do ya park it??????? LOL Congrats!! I'm jealous.

I bought a 72 RR grille last year from EBAY for about $1100 ... then another $100 for the mounting brackets. I plan to install it next month and wonder how much fun that will be.

The guy who sold me the brackets said I would need to work on em as they show through the mesh of course.

Gotta think an OEM 72 RR grill is gonna continue to be sorta rare....

JosephGiannini · Post by **JosephGiannini** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 4:10 pm

I am looking always for the 72 grille. 1000 is cheap average sales for nos no problems reayd to go is 2k-2.5k

72GY9Runner · Post by **72GY9Runner** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 5:23 pm

Ok, here's what I tried....
First, I very carefully sandblasted the entire grille so there is no paint of any kind on it. Then I tried both electric and torch heat using silver solder with an acid core. The heat would get hot enough to melt the solder, but it would not stick to the grille. Then I tried turning the power waaaay down on my mig, but of course without enough heat it wont stick to the tin. If I turn the heat up it blows the metal away, so I quickly gave up on this.
btw, this is 22 guage tin, and crappy tin at that.
I considered brass welding as another option, but I'm afraid that the heat may warp the grille.

So... I've kinda decided to manufacture a new one at this point. If I buy a 3ft x 10ft sheet of the mesh ($300), I can make about 10 of them easy. lol
The drawback is that it wont be exactly as original, and I still can't find anyone locally who stocks the mesh (special order).

Or, if I'm willing to buy the hex stamp tool for a local shop that I know... he will custom stamp a sheet of steel for me and completely copy the original with all the bends and proper unstamped areas (this will cost $300 for the tool, and an additional cost for each piece he makes). The benefit of this option is that for every grille he makes for me, the cost comes down considerably. Also, from seeing pictures of the original, he is very confident that he can exactly duplicate my old grille. So..... is anyone else interested in purchasing a correct looking reproduced 72 grille mesh?

Post by **Eric** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 6:09 pm

I have a feeling you could sell a few on ebay to recover your costs.

mopar71 · Post by **mopar71** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 7:02 pm

Does anybody have a pic so I can see what you are talking about? Thanks.

72Rdrnner · Post by **72Rdrnner** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 10:15 am

pigman wrote:I plan to install it next month and wonder how much fun that will be.

The guy who sold me the brackets said I would need to work on em as they show through the mesh of course.

Gotta think an OEM 72 RR grill is gonna continue to be sorta rare....

If you're interested I did up a whole series of "HOW TO" pictures and instructions of a 1972 grille installation. On another board a couple who had one but didn't know if it was complete or how to put it in posted the question. So I helped them.

If you're interested PM me and I can snail mail a CD with all the stuff on it.

Orâ€¦if I get some free time I can put them all on my Photo Bucket site and link it here.

pigman · Post by **pigman** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 1:32 pm

That would be beyond sweet. I will PM you.

Road Runner Nest

72 grill restoration

72 grill restoration

Meshy