Thread: 1550 some Henry Ford 32 roadsters (and counting....)

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Originally Posted by Deuce

Your shell looks to be a original 32 Ford piece ... but the insert does NOT have the crank hole ... as it should.

Hi deuce, I was wondering about that too, but yesterday I closely looked at the grill insert with a couple other hotrodders. I noticed the bottom part of each insert is lodged inside the insert metal 'frame' However I also counted 5 inserts that are not "inserted" but rather welded at the botton. We then compared with another 32 grill, and found that these 5 inserts would be the exact ones that would hold the crank hole. Inshort, if I had removed the crank hole, replaced the inserts and welded them back in the grill, this is exactely what I would have ended up with. In light of this latest 'discovery', I am concluding that this may very well be the original insert, minus the crank hole. As a matter of fact if you take notice of the grill insert frame, at the bottom, where the crank hoel would be, you can see that it does not connect. A crank hole would have covered this, but since it has been removed you now can see it not connecting at the bottom (look at photo and it looks like a red spot instead of a metal color). A new grill insert manufactured without a crank hole would go all te way around the grill and connect, wouldn't it?

PS: I forgot to mention that I closely looked at several original 32 grill inserts at a car cruise night and found them to be consistent in craftsmenship to my grill. however comparing new inserts I found they were not 'built" exactely in the same manner. The metal inserts are also very old, showing rust and have many layers of different paint on them.

It was a common practice to eliminate the crank hole, so your insert probably is a modified original. Just like they used to fill the radiator neck hole. I have articles in some of my old magazines somewhere of doing both modifications.

Don

HiboyGal,
Just some more info, all original '32 grille inserts were painted gray, not chrome.
Jim