I've been looking at a number of cars purported to have original grilles, and have noted some discrepancies:
1. I don't see the different size rivets mentioned in the judging manual. ("The round head rivets attaching the brackets are slightly larger than the rivets that hold the grille to the vertical mounting brackets.")
2. Some grilles have smaller-diameter, thickish (almost half-sphere with a flattened top), natural aluminum-looking rivets. Other grilles have larger-diameter, thinner, polished aluminum-looking rivets. What was typical of factory production or were there variations?
3. Some grilles have all of the rivets along the natural clear anodized four-piece aluminum surround facing out, i.e., the round heads are on the inside, and the "bottoms" along the outside edge of the surround. Others had the rivets along the top piece facing down, i.e., looking from the inside, the rivet heads are visible on three of the four pieces, while the rivet bottoms are visible on the fourth (top piece). Again which was typical, or did it vary based on the individual assembling that day?
4. The vertical grille supports and mounting brackets (suspending the three thin black anodized horizontal bars parallel with the top and bottom of the surround) were in some grilles perfectly straight, while in other grills all slightly bent to some degree, as if the holes in the surround, and horizontal bars were not perfectly lined up, and the supports and brackets had to be slightly bent to line up the holes for the rivets. Again, what was typical of factory production or were there variations?
5. Finally, the purpose of all of this scrutiny is to assess the correctness of the reproduction grilles carried by most vendors (I assume that they're all made by the same outfit). In response to the questions I've posed above, I don't detect any difference in rivet sizes, the rivets used appear closer to the latter mentioned above (wide, shallow, and polished), the rivets along the surround face out, and none of the supports and brackets are straight. Do these fairly reflect the original grilles, and pass Flight Judging in terms of appearance and configuration? Does anyone have experience having their car judged, or having judged one, with one of these reproduction grilles, and if so, how did they fare? (I think that these account for 15 originality points.)
Thanks very much in advance,
Louis
1. I don't see the different size rivets mentioned in the judging manual. ("The round head rivets attaching the brackets are slightly larger than the rivets that hold the grille to the vertical mounting brackets.")
2. Some grilles have smaller-diameter, thickish (almost half-sphere with a flattened top), natural aluminum-looking rivets. Other grilles have larger-diameter, thinner, polished aluminum-looking rivets. What was typical of factory production or were there variations?
3. Some grilles have all of the rivets along the natural clear anodized four-piece aluminum surround facing out, i.e., the round heads are on the inside, and the "bottoms" along the outside edge of the surround. Others had the rivets along the top piece facing down, i.e., looking from the inside, the rivet heads are visible on three of the four pieces, while the rivet bottoms are visible on the fourth (top piece). Again which was typical, or did it vary based on the individual assembling that day?
4. The vertical grille supports and mounting brackets (suspending the three thin black anodized horizontal bars parallel with the top and bottom of the surround) were in some grilles perfectly straight, while in other grills all slightly bent to some degree, as if the holes in the surround, and horizontal bars were not perfectly lined up, and the supports and brackets had to be slightly bent to line up the holes for the rivets. Again, what was typical of factory production or were there variations?
5. Finally, the purpose of all of this scrutiny is to assess the correctness of the reproduction grilles carried by most vendors (I assume that they're all made by the same outfit). In response to the questions I've posed above, I don't detect any difference in rivet sizes, the rivets used appear closer to the latter mentioned above (wide, shallow, and polished), the rivets along the surround face out, and none of the supports and brackets are straight. Do these fairly reflect the original grilles, and pass Flight Judging in terms of appearance and configuration? Does anyone have experience having their car judged, or having judged one, with one of these reproduction grilles, and if so, how did they fare? (I think that these account for 15 originality points.)
Thanks very much in advance,
Louis