One Bar Wonder Grill is DONE!
Thread Starter
Senior Member
Joined: 06-27-2006
Posts: 732
From: Kingsville On
One Bar Wonder Grill is DONE!
Well after 2 weeks and about 15-20 hours labour my one bar is done and I must say it is RED HOT!!!
First 2 pics show how I used tape too mark off for my rough cuts I used a coping saw fast and doesn`t remelt like cut off wheel.You need to leave 1 5/8" on the top and 1 1/8" on the bottom.After you cut the top and bottom bars you need to renforce the mounting tabs or they will break off.
Next thing I did in pic 3 was to remove all the chrome not fun but the right way to do it.Watch out for that stuff it`s sharp and I cut my fingers 3 times.
I used resin and cloth to renforce all cut outs that needed bondo.I also cut down the middle bar so that the mesh would lay down flat and tight to the grill.You will see in pic 5 I epoxyed in 2 wood blocks on each side to screw the mesh too.
I decided to leave the big plastic gold bowtie off and keep it clean and thin so you have to fill in the mounting holes.Looks great even with just the bowtie backer after it was painted.But I decided to go down to my sign guy and have a custom one made up based on the 1914 one.You would not belive the work that goes in to making a blue and white original one into my custom gold and black one.
In the one pic it shows the different in the thickness of factory top bar and the new custom one.The goal I had was to get the top and bottom bar as thin as possible to make it into a frame and have the factory bar left as a stand out one bar.
I loved the way the SS grill looked and studied the regular grill to see if I could get the same look.After I put it on the HHR a stood back I was amazed at the look. I think it looks better than the SS with the bar centred in the gill rather than higher up.
First 2 pics show how I used tape too mark off for my rough cuts I used a coping saw fast and doesn`t remelt like cut off wheel.You need to leave 1 5/8" on the top and 1 1/8" on the bottom.After you cut the top and bottom bars you need to renforce the mounting tabs or they will break off.
Next thing I did in pic 3 was to remove all the chrome not fun but the right way to do it.Watch out for that stuff it`s sharp and I cut my fingers 3 times.
I used resin and cloth to renforce all cut outs that needed bondo.I also cut down the middle bar so that the mesh would lay down flat and tight to the grill.You will see in pic 5 I epoxyed in 2 wood blocks on each side to screw the mesh too.
I decided to leave the big plastic gold bowtie off and keep it clean and thin so you have to fill in the mounting holes.Looks great even with just the bowtie backer after it was painted.But I decided to go down to my sign guy and have a custom one made up based on the 1914 one.You would not belive the work that goes in to making a blue and white original one into my custom gold and black one.
In the one pic it shows the different in the thickness of factory top bar and the new custom one.The goal I had was to get the top and bottom bar as thin as possible to make it into a frame and have the factory bar left as a stand out one bar.
I loved the way the SS grill looked and studied the regular grill to see if I could get the same look.After I put it on the HHR a stood back I was amazed at the look. I think it looks better than the SS with the bar centred in the gill rather than higher up.
Last edited by GTOMIKE; Mar 17, 2008 at 12:28 AM.
Senior Member
Joined: 01-24-2008
Posts: 725
From: USA
One bar grill
Looks great! Wondering why chrome had to come off? I suspect that it might start peeling and just go on and on...
I have two extra grills and am trying to decide what to do with them. Like what you've done!
I have two extra grills and am trying to decide what to do with them. Like what you've done!
