Well, here is some more "before and after" stuff.
It's F$#%&$! cold up here in Canada during the winter (it is now February) so sheet-metal work has suffered a bit. it has been around -15C (or about 1F, before the wind chill!) I have been trying to do little things that I can do inside like the grille etc.
The grille before. It's all there, but some rivets were broken and it desperately needed some attention but everything was straight with no dents etc.
I drilled out all the old rivets and removed the main backing plate assembly. I cleaned it, sanded it, and painted the backing plate black. Then I took a scotchbrite pad and some autosol to all the aluminum pieces.
The grille after.Then I got out the rivet gun and re-riveted all the bars. One good thing is that they were all numbered on the back of each one, right from the factory!
After all that, I will probably buy a new grille anyway. Probably a chrome one with no hole for the hood release because it will be using hood pins instead.
