Anyone get one of the aluminum or steel grille shells from LMC? How are they? Is this the only source of a decent grille?

 

I purchased one of the LMC aluminum grill shells when I first began working on Old Blue. Luckily UPS ran a forklift through the box and had to reimburse me because when the damaged package arrived I found the aluminum much thinner than my oxidized original. I ended up purchasing a Dennis Carpenter one which was the same thickness as my original and looked great.
Supposedly the new "chrome" ones from LMC are made of steel and chrome plated. In theory that should make them tougher than aluminum, but I have not seen one in person yet.

 

Dennis Carpenter or NOS

 

You're correct about the "in theory" part. The problem with chrome plated anything is that the chrome plating has to be done correctly. It can look great when new and look like crap in six months.
To look, and stay looking, great it has to be triple chrome plated. That doesn't mean that it's been chromed three times, what that means is that there are three layers to the plating process. After polishing the bare metal and getting rid of any imperfections, the first layer of copper is plated, then a heavy layer of nickle is plated and last, the chrome layer.
Look at any cheap chrome valve cover or wheel or something similar and see what they look like in a few months.
LMC says their grill is guaranteed but I've had enough experience with their stuff to suspect that's more "PR" than reality.
If you want something that'll last and look good, bite the bullet and go with the Dennis Carpenter repro.

 

X2 on LMC NO...why you ask because the word on FTE is they are cheaply made and NOT made with original Ford tooling. You would would think that for any where from 4 to 3 hundred dollars you would not have to twist, beat, bend, hammer, push, wrangle, ect....to get things to line up that should be spot on already. Thin, like cheap beer can thin.

Dennis Carpenter YES, Original Ford tooling, need I say more?

 

After being warned on this site to stay away from the LMC shell, and seeing the price of the Dennis Carpenter unit, I started looking for used ones on eBay. The problem was they were all beat up and they still wanted $250-350 for 'em. So I just decided to straighten mine and polish it using Flitz. It turned out decent, not as nice as a new one, but about as good as what I was seeing for sale on eBay. Luckily, mine is on a tow truck with a big push bar on it to hide, somewhat, the imperfections. New repop grille inserts from Amazon helped out.

 

jas that is a sweet wrecker you have. From what I can see of your grill shell, it looks like it turned out pretty darn good.

 

Looks good! Did you have to remove the anodizing first?

 

There is someone (I can't remember his name) in the 67-72 section who restores grilles and sells them on ebay. He had a recent post called "buyer beware." They are not cheap, but very high quality. He might be able to help you.

 

FWIW I bought a DC grille shell for my 79 F350 that I restored a few months back. It's as close to the OEM grille shell as you can get BUT it is thinner than the factory original. The fit was pretty good overall, I had to slightly bend a few mounting tabs, but not bad. The lines look very good when bolted up and the finish is great!! But don't expect it to be the same quality/thickness because it's not. I plan to powder coat my original in a chrome finish sometime to see how that turns out. Another FTE member over in the "bronco threads" did this and was very happy with the results. Just my .02

 

No, I did not polish it that hard. It was mostly to remove 40 years of road dirt and grime from it.

 

Thanks.

I would have assumed that DC with the original molds, would have spent the effort to to use the same gauge aluminum. The cost of material can't be a factor.

I think I will just try to polish and keep mine.