Hi All,

Is it possible to temporarily bolt on the headlights (w/o the grill) directly onto my '53. Will the headlights, buckets, etc bolt onto the air defelctors w/o the grill? I need to strip the old primer and paint in the grill area but the '53 is now my daily until the car comes back from the shop. (May be a while) Due to time constraints I can only work on the truck for short periods of time so taking the grill on and off wouldn't be efficient.

thx!!

 

It's been a while since I remove my grill but I do remember that the buckets and grill are connected. Mine had been seperated and then brazed back together. I've seperated them again to replace the grill part. Not sure if they were orig. spot welded, I have donar grills that I can look at and see how they are and get back to you. It probably wont be until monday though and I'm sure someone else knows the answer off the top of their heads.
Good Luck.

 

Just remembered... The buckets bolt to the air dams and there's a center brace for the grill, so yes if you seperate the buckets and grill they can be bolted back up. However, I don't think its too much trouble to just pull the whole thing work on it a bit and put it back on, might save time later reattaching the buckets. Just a thought.

 

On my 53 (from what I remember) the grill is spot welded to the buckets so you would have to cut it apart. I (stupidly) did this when I was a kid because I had grand ideas of a custom tube grill. Now I wish I had the original and ended up buying one at a swap meet. I have just the old headlight buckets mounted to the truck for now and it is nice to be able to drive the truck and work on the grill. If I were in your situation I would just remove the 6 bolts and work the grill then replace it as needed. It's not that hard or time consuming to do. I would think you should be able to remove it in 15 minutes.