another popular choice is the 52-54 ford car headlight doors for the 2" french and the stainless trim on the inside and with small fab of fastening tabs they are a direct bolt on. I have 56 tbird/fairlane doors on my 53
http://s345.photobucket.com/albums/p395/effie_man/

here's a few pics of mine

 

While we're on the subject of grilles, what would a 55 grille be worth that has no visible rust, small dent in the center and pitted crome on the hockey sticks. I'm in Canada where prices seem to be a fair amount more than in the US. The grille has already been removed from a vehicle. There is also a 54 grille still attached to a truck that is partially submerged in a swamp but with a little work would be abtainable. I'd like to have these to mount on a wall in my shop.

 

i paid $50 for the dent free 53 grille in the pics posted in the link from a friends parts yard so $100 maybe, im in Canada as well

 

I definitely want to do this mod. I have a '55 grille that came on my truck, and I had bought a '56 grille, because I like the headlight look better. Now I can combine the 2!

 

I was hoping for more details on this modification. I guess I'm going to forge ahead with my own ideas. I ordered new 56 healight bezels from LMC yesterday. I'll dust off my camera and try to take photos when I get started.

 

Get it done already so this winter i can copy it just kiddin!!, this is on my long list to do as soon as i get back onto the truck this winter.i also like the mod effie man did to his grille.

 

I'll post it up soon......I hope. I just spent 2 days working on a stainless cover for the lower part of my steering column and.............I'm still not finished.

The UPS guy has come up my driveway a lot lately. Gotta start finding a place to hang some of these parts.

 

Too bad your so far away, I'd let you hang them in my cluttered shop

 

By the way, you guys with the 54 grilles are they bolted to the gravel pan as well?

 

All I did was trim 1/4" around the inside of the opening, set the depth of the 53 buckets,weld 4 small angle brackets inside(w/J clips to attach the buckets)add 2 tabs(W/j clips) for the 56 ring to attach to. I already had te 56 deflectors, but like has been noted you can use various means to add the needed bucket clearance. This is a very simple task and I feel it really improves the look. I will put my pics on here as soon as I can figure out how.

 

Pics would be appreciated. I know it's not rocket science but I would like to see what others did as opposed to what's bouncing around in my head.

Just noticed this as your first post. Welcome to the site.

 

OK...I took some time this morning to mock up the grille and take some pics. This part of the project is not at the top of my list right now so bear with me...these pieces are just mocked up but hopefully the pics will be of some help.

I traced the outline of the 56 headlight bucket mounting and transferred it to a sheet of 16 ga steel. I had originally intended to use the actual pieces from a 56 grille but I found out that they were far too thin to be useful once cut out of the OEM grille assembly. On the back side of this steel sheet you can see the outline of the outer perimeter of the bucket mounting plate. I calculated this diameter by placing the headlight bucket with trim ring into the grille housing and measuring how deep the mounting plate needed to be to keep the headlight/bezel flush with the grille lip. I forget the actual measurement but I believe that it was somewhere around 1-3/4 inches. The headlight bucket will mount to this plate in the same manner as the OEM...using the same spring clip anchors.

After I cut out the mounting plates I will mount them into the grille housing using tabs that will be held in place with structural adhesive. Strong as weld with no distortion/discoloration of the newly chromed grille housing.

 

Here is a view of the grille after plating showing the trimmed headlight opening and the SS rivets I used to reassemble the buckets to the crossbar.

 

This last set of pics show how the headlight/bezel looks when mounted in the grille housing. Once again, this is just a mockup to show how the pieces will fit together...the blue tape is not part of the final assembly.

 

Basically the same thing I did, but I like your mounting system better than mine. Good job! That chrome grill and recessed rings look killer!