How to Recognize a Classic Car Grille

The American love affair with the automobile has been going on for decades. If you've ever been to a classic car show, you can probably appreciate the progression of designs and engineering that has taken place with cars through the years. One component seems to make up most of the visual personality of a classic car, and that is the grille.

Instructions

1. Know the definition of a classic car. The term "classic" is applied to cars that are more than twenty-five years old, so it covers a lot of territory. The best way to recognize classic car grilles is to break them down by era.

2. Research the older cars. Classic cars from the mid- to late 1930s featured a wire-style grille. The grille was made of stainless wire and had a mesh look to it. These grilles weren't decorative; they were meant to protect the radiator.

3. Appreciate the decorative era. From the late 1930s to the mid-1940s, classic car grilles became more decorative as manufacturers used metal strips to form the grille into different shapes. In the 1940s and 1950s, car grilles were designed with large horizontal strips, similar to the look of those produced in 2006 and 2007.

4. Understand progress. By the mid-1950s, car grilles were being stamped out instead of assembled from individual pieces. In some cases, 3 separate pieces were stamped, and then assembled to make one grille. A stamped grille was usually longer and more rounded than the previous style. Stamping allowed for greater symmetry, which became the rule in the 1960s. Eventually, plastic became the primary material in car grilles and molding replaced stamping in the production process.