Side note - soft unveiling of grille redesign

[ChallengerHK]

I've been talking about and doing planning for this for about three years, but a couple of things have happened recently (some good, some bad) that have motivated me to do some real work.

Background, short form: I love my car, but I've never liked the 72-74 Challenger header and grille. Overall I think it's too flat, and I've never cared for the sad mouth. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to do much about the sad mouth (the jury is still out in my sketchbook), but I did come up with an idea to address the depth issue that I like. It started about a year ago when I was out at Dulles taking some photos. I noticed a shape, that I've seen a thousand times, but something clicked when I saw it this time. first pic is of Dulles under construction that shows off that shape.

So, I started doing some sketches incorporating that part into the grille. I may or may not change the design of the slats as well, but I want to mock this up and see what it looks like first; I think it might be goo on its own.  Second pic is the computer sketch I did.

Next is a two dimensional foam core mockup so I can check real dimensions.

Finally, there's a quick, cheapie photochop showing how the other pieces would look in place.

[Moparal]

I would like to see that installed. You may be on something that makes the 72-74 more appealing

[ChallengerHK]

Thanks, Al. Hopefully I'll have the time to mock these up in three dimensions. My thought is that they'll be about an inch wide, tapered at the front and back of the "arrowheads" and chromed, or maybe satin-finished.

[TorOrange]

Normally hate custom grilles, but this does look pretty good.

Can't wait to see it on the car. 

[ChallengerHK]

I don't like the billet grilles, and in this case I think a billet grille would have made things worse, as they're very flat themselves. Another design goal was to try to do something that would look like it "belonged" on the car, something that the stylists back in the day might have considered.

[ChallengerHK]

One more thing. I would have liked to have the "towers" with more lean, but this is about as much as I can get out of them with a stock grille. I'm thinking about taking another grille I have that's badly cracked and cutting the horizontal slats out of it, then making the new slats have a greater angle and finally adding new slats to the towers. Does that make sense, and what do you think of the idea?

[Jesus H Chrysler]

I've kept a spare header panel and a few inserts for my 72 for just that reason.  It looks like you've gone much farther with your design and it looks kick ass!   

[IMNCARN82]

I like it!!!  IMO  someone should make a cooler looking grille for em! Your idea shows some great potential. Shape is good. Kinduv 71 cuda ish.  Post up a pic of the whole thing. 

[joelson6]

i think you on to something. 


do you have a front shot? i'd love to see one.

[ChallengerHK]

Thanks for the support. All I've made so far is that two dimensional piece to verify the top to bottom and front to back dimensions (they were hard to measure, so I knew I'd be a little off). Next I'm going to do a three dimensional mock-up of all four pieces, tack them in place, and see what it looks like.

[1970 RT Challenger 1970]

Check this out, maybe you need a 3D Printer to Design and Build your Challenger Grill, or any other hard to get part:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmDz7Q9_h6c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aghzpO_UZE

[Super Blue 72]

Looks really interesting, David.  Keep us updated!   

[HP2]

Looks good, that is a great start!

To eliminate the sad mouth aspect, you may be able to integrate that same shape into the ends of the gril, turned 90* to the orientation of these.

[ChallengerHK]

Check this out, maybe you need a 3D Printer to Design and Build your Challenger Grill, or any other hard to get part:

Thanks for the info. Some form of either 3D printing or CNC milling will be the way I go. I think I havve someone lined up to run these out once the design is complete and in a 3D format.

Looks really interesting, David.  Keep us updated!   

Thanks, Phil, will do.

Looks good, that is a great start!

To eliminate the sad mouth aspect, you may be able to integrate that same shape into the ends of the gril, turned 90* to the orientation of these.

That's an interesting idea. I'll play with it in the sketchbook.

I've been looking at blocking of the ends of the grille vertically, right where the sad mouth starts to turn down, which would leave kind of a scallop shape that I could do something with. I might back the horizontal slats with hex mesh, and if so I could fill that scallops with the same mesh. It wouldn't help with depth at all, but it would add some texture.

The big issues with addressing the sad mouth are that a) it's in the header, and b) it's accented by the chrome trim. I can paint the chrome trim body color or black, but the shape is still there in the fiberglass, unless I decide to do some serious cutting.