1953-54 Grille Surrounds

[buddymander]

My brother has a lot of experience with injection molding, so I thought I'd see if there was any interest in chrome plated plastic grille surrounds. Doncha just love the new technology?

[kurtruk]

Uh, yeah. I think that would be a blessing for some people. Especially racers and maybe rodders.

KURTRUK
(read it backwards)




Nothing is politically right which is morally wrong. -A. Lincoln

[bob40]

Worth a try.

[Flashback]

In typical caso fashion, do you have a ballpark price.
Is the material ABS?

Tex E. Grier

[Invalid User Name]

I think if someone would come up with the grill trims for the 1950 Champion there would be a big market. Mine are garbage and held together by screws. I have seen many others that are in the same shape.


Doug
Venice, Florida
1950 Champion
9G F1

[sweetolbob]

Buddymander

I hope that he can make a go of it.

He will face two important hurdles. Initially the cost of the mold/molds including engineering will require a large outlay of cash. I'd guess at least $200,000.

The second is the choice of materials. ABS of which I have some experience will be difficult to maintain the thin upper section without warping. Polycarbonate could be a better choice for rigidity but is much more difficult to mold.

By the time he's done it would probably cost as much as diecasting.

Let me suggest a lower cost method. Thermoforming - a lot lower cost for molds and he can by sheet from many suppliers in many materials.

Not trying to be negative but you have to put pen to paper before you jump. I hope he/someone succeeds.

Bob

,

[sals54]

I've recently had thoughts about this very item being molded in ABS or some other type of material. I don't think they need to be molded in the exact manner they were cast in pot metal. Much of the surrounds could be made more solid to avoid the brittleness of the upper portion of the original piece. If the back side of the grill was filled rather than having the screw bosses jutting out individually, it would be an easier mold to make and stronger in plastic than if done as an exact copy. There would be no difference on the front side in appearance. The lower portion could also be thickened slightly to give it just a bit more rigidity. The plastic pieces could even be molded without the screw holes pre-drilled. Flash chroming could also be a possibility, but there is a new process which is "spray on chrome" which is quite amazing. Do a search on youtube to see a demo on the spray on chrome. I think just having them molded and left to the buyer to have the chrome or painting done would be an avenue to make the process cheaper for all parties. Just my thinking out loud, thats all.

sals54

[buddymander]

He showed me this process that uses tiny plastic balls to fill the mold. "Injection Molding" I'm going to check out that chroming process.

[silverhawk]

How about '61 tail light lenses? [)] Seriously, keep us updated on how this pans out, this is really interesting.

Dylan Wills

'61 lark deluxe 4 door wagon

[Dick Steinkamp]

I'm no expert, but I did try to justify making 53, 54 and 55 C/K tail light housings.

First with a partner that was an expert on plastic injection molding and the spray chrome. It did pencil out if I could sell probably 100 pair for $175 a pair. The problem was that the chrome would not have been good enough to attract that many customers. Also, I felt that the market would be further limited by the fact that they were plastic...even though you couldn't tell unless you thumped them. Stude guys generally don't want plastic parts on their car.

I also tried it with a partner that posts here on the forum with contacts in China. The product would have been beautiful, but about 200 needed to be sold at $200 to amortize the tooling and other fixed costs. I was chicken. Kudos to whoever is now repoping them for SI. I'm sure they went out on the limb and I hope they are successful.

Keep in mind they will have to be PERFECT in order to get enough money for them to pay back the tooling. Your market is high end restorers and hot rodders. Both want EXCELLENT. Normal CASO's will make due with painted or pitted used ones. Also keep in mind that many will TELL you they will buy them if you make them. Few will actually step up to the plate when they are available.

Dick Steinkamp
Bellingham, WA

[kurtruk]

[quote]Originally posted by Dick Steinkamp

I'm no expert, but I did try to justify making 53, 54 and 55 C/K tail light housings.
I was chicken. Kudos to whoever is now repoping them for SI.

_____________________________________________________________________
Before you cause a stampede, Dick...let's clarify : SI has 55-56 C/K (excpt GH) reproduced.
Not 53 & 54. [:I]

P.S. Unless you know something we don't. Which you might.

KURTRUK
(read it backwards)




Nothing is politically right which is morally wrong. -A. Lincoln

[sals54]

Dick, As you have been there and done that, in terms of penciling it out... I have to give you credit. Most of us don't even get that far. Mine is and always has been a pipe dream of sorts. Up in smoke.

sals54

[Dick Steinkamp]

quote:Originally posted by kurtruk

Before you cause a stampede, Dick...let's clarify : SI has 55-56 C/K (excpt GH) reproduced.
Not 53 & 54. [:I]

You're right Kurt. Thanks for the correction.

Dick Steinkamp
Bellingham, WA

[buddymander]

High end restorers will want die cast originals. That's out of my league. I couldn't find anything on youtube that told me how to actually chrome plastic. Just how to chrome metals. I saw people spraying stuff on what looked like plastic, but I'm not sure of the finish. Like Dick says, they have to be perfect. Well, I just want them to look perfect. I believe the molds can be made out of ceramic since the plastic's melting point is so low. Now, where do I find a pair of pitted up surrounds. With the availability of fiberglass hoods, the only things missing are grille surrounds and inner fenders. Oh, maybe radiator supports. I have two post 55 Studebakers, and they both need the 53-4 treatment, as far as I'm concerned. This idea reminds me of what happened to old ford metal fender prices and fiberglas fender prices when they started manufacturing new metal fenders for the 32-33-34 cars. Now, the originals have to be in extremely good condition to worth anything, and the fiberglas ones are almost worthless.

[gordr]

This is an interesting topic. Now that such things as stereolithography and rapid prototyping are becoming affordable, we don't necessarily have to adhere to old technology for making these parts.

Instead of making a dead-on perfect mold to injection-mold these grille shells, what about making a cheap, crude, mold to sand-cast aluminum blanks, and then use a CNC mill to cut them down to finished dimension? Buff them up well, and the shiny aluminum will meet the needs of many users as-is, or it could be chrome plated for a concours finish.

Probably the hardest part of the process would be in accurately jigging the raw casting in the mill so that the entire finished surface would fall within the body of the blank.

Of course, you get the digits for the CNC mill by "reading" a known perfect original in a 3D scanner.

Gord Richmond, within Weasel range of the Alberta Badlands