Aluminum Grille Resto

There’s Hope For Old Trim

By Matthew King

photographer: Matthew King

Over the span of 35-plus years, nature and poor driving had assaulted our ’63 Ford Falcon’s grille, but virtually all of the major damage was concentrated in one small area just under the edge of the hood, almost as if someone had grabbed the slats and crushed them or speared a protruding object. The rest of the grille and the headlight bezels were nearly mint. Despite the small size of the damaged area, these broken and twisted slats constituted a major repair, because they had to be removed, straightened, trimmed, and welded back on, and Ano-Brite warned us that the welded areas would show up after anodizing. Although anything can be fixed if the stakes (and price) are high enough, you’ll be money ahead by searching for a good repairable core if your car’s grille is in worse shape than this.

With the grille removed from the car, we brought it to Ano-Brite, where the remaining flat-black paint was removed with some nasty aircraft-grade paint remover. Any type of paint remover would work.

Next, the grille and headlight bezels were submerged into a tank of sodium hydroxide, which removes the surface oxidation and what’s left of the original anodizing. These steps strip the aluminum grille down to bare metal in preparation for the straightening and polishing operations, which Ano-Brite sends out to local specialists.

Straightening aluminum trim is part art, part blacksmithing. At Classic Welding & Repair, Alex Gonzalez tackled the mangled grille with a brace of hammers, assorted picks and punches, and a variety of anvils. Although we cringed at the sight of Gonzalez slinging a big hammer in close proximity to the fragile aluminum, he wielded it with a delicate touch.

Gonzalez quickly unfolded the biggest creases along the top rib of the grille with a few well-placed hammer blows. The flat table-like anvil provides a solid surface to strike on, similar to a sheetmetal dolly. Using little more than a pair of bodyman’s hammers and an assortment of homemade anvils and dollies, Gonzalez poked and prodded the grille back into shape, carefully reversing the folds in the thin aluminum and pounding out the dents and creases.

An occasional pass over the surface with a torch softens the aluminum and makes it more malleable, but heat has to be used carefully because too much can cause the metal to turn to an off-white color when it’s anodized.

The worst damage to our grille was the two broken slats, which Gonzalez snapped off completely so he could straighten them.

With each slat gripped in a vise, Gonzalez grabbed on with a pair of pliers and twisted the kinks out. Then he tapped each one flat against the anvil with hammers blows, and finally reshaped the rolled edge using a thin anvil clamped in a vise.

Soft aluminum stretches when it bends, so after the slat is straightened, it’s too long to fit back in the opening and needs to be trimmed to length with a cutoff wheel. After trimming, each slat was carefully MIG-welded in place with aluminum welding wire. Unfortunately, the welded area will be apparent after the grille is anodized because the heat from the welding affects the molecular structure of the metal.

With the two mangled slats welded back in place, the major damage was repaired. Gonzalez cleaned up the welds and shaped the corners with a grinder and a round file.

Small dents in the headlight bezels were carefully tapped out from the reverse side with a punch, and the pieces were ready to go to the polisher.

The crew at V&C Metal Polishing began by sanding off all the pitting and oxidized aluminum from the surface of the grilles and bezels first using a 120-grit sanding belt and progressing to 300-grit paper. Areas too small to reach with the belt are buffed with smaller wheels or a hand-held disc sander. If the pitting isn’t removed, the pores in surface of the aluminum remain open and the pits can reappear after anodizing.

Next, each piece was polished on buffing wheels with a cutting compound to remove the sanding marks from the previous operation. The polishers must be careful not to overheat the metal when it’s being buffed, which can warp it.

After all traces of the cutting compound were removed, the trim was color buffed to a high luster with a white rouge compound. Then, the pieces were wrapped and sent back to Ano-Brite for the final anodizing steps.

To prepare the grille and bezels for anodizing, they were attached to an aluminum rack suspended from a heavy copper bar, which conducts the electricity needed for the anodizing process to occur.

After a water rinse, the pieces were dipped in a deoxidizing bath, which removes any traces of buffing compound, dirt, or fingerprints from the metal, followed by another water rinse.

Next, the trim was “bright-dipped” in a solution of phosphoric, sulfuric, and nitric acids mixed with water. This crucial step in the restoration process duplicates the ultra-shiny finish the trim originally had. Without bright-dipping, the polished surface of the aluminum would be dulled by the anodizing process.

The next to last step was the anodizing itself, which took about 15 minutes in a 20 percent bath of electrically charged sulfuric acid that transforms the surface of the aluminum to aluminum oxide through a chemical reaction. The longer a part stays in the bath, the deeper the anodizing penetrates its surface. Finally, the trim was dipped in a nickel acetate bath, which seals the open pores of the anodized aluminum against contamination. After drying, it was ready to put back on the car. The difference after restoration is astonishing. If you look closely, you can see where the broken slats were welded, but most of this will be covered up when we repaint the black vertical lines between the rows of slats. We can also use some chrome paint to camouflage the marks even more.

In the days before plastic trim melted in the sun, stamped aluminum graced the front ends of many American cars, because it was cheaper and easier to manufacture than the chromed pot metal grilles it replaced. It was also more easily damaged. Ham-fisted mechanics, runaway grocery carts, inconveniently placed fence posts, garage doors, and other hazards are just a few of the natural and man-made forces that can wreak havoc on a car’s grille during its lifetime. Even the rare arrow-straight specimen that’s survived relatively unscathed has likely been diminished enough by time and weather that its surface is pitted and dull. But unlike side moldings and other exterior trim that are often shaved for a cleaner, custom look anyway, you can’t exactly get away with not having a grille on your car if you’re at all concerned about appearances.

Unfortunately, due to the complexity involved in manufacturing them, very few reproduction aluminum grilles are available from aftermarket sources, which is why prices for N.O.S. pieces can approach $1,000, and good repairable used cores command top dollar. So unless you can cough up the dough for N.O.S. (if you can even find it), you’re faced with the prospect of restoring the used grille you have or find at the junkyard.

Although some people may be content with simply getting the piece polished, aluminum that’s left in its natural state doesn’t have the correct look and won’t last long without oxidizing again. A true restoration includes having the polished grille reanodized to reproduce the correct appearance and provide a long-lasting finish. It’s not cheap, but it’s worth the cost if you want your car to stand tall. We brought our ’63 Ford Falcon’s well-worn grille to Ano-Brite for restoration because the company is one of the few commercial anodizers that’s equipped to replicate the original finish that was applied to OEM grilles at the factory. Follow along as we cover the process from stripping to dipping.

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Aluminum Grille Resto

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