I have a spare grille from a 1965 Riviera. Very nice shape other than one of the mounting brackets being broken off. The break is nice and clean. Apologies in advance for dodgy pics, which are intended to show the intact bracket on one side and the location of the missing one on the other. Is there anything that can be done to replace the missing bracket? My thoughts are: 1) Ask around for a destroyed grille, harvest the bracket, and j.b. weld it. 2) Live with it. Ideas?
JB weld will probably not hold. If you can find a piece maybe used a panel adhesive. It is much stronger.
Here's how I would try to fix it. The fins may be too thin to do this but I would assume there isn't much weight to support. Trim the notches off the back side of the vertical fins to produce a continuous smooth surface. I'm trying to get more surface area to glue to. Get a piece of sturdy steel rod. It may need to be heavy gauge wire. Maybe get stainless so it wont rust. The largest piece that will fit (hide) behind the fins. Bend the rod to the shape of the blue line in the pic. Glue the wire to the trailing edge of the fins with JB Weld. You're going to need to see how much you can hide behind the fins. If the JB Weld is going to be too visible on the vertical runs then I'd bend the top horizontal portion over the top fin forming a "U" that lands on the top surface of the top fin. Not the thin trailing edge of the fin, but on the top. I'm thinking like fingers on a ladder rung. This hopefully would be a hidden spot to JB Weld it to the top of the fin. This should anchor the top. Do the same to the bottom. You'll need to fashion a mount on the bottom. If you still have the original maybe that can be JB Welded on the wire. You're going to need to get creative bending the rod/wire. If you don't have the original mount then maybe loop the rod/wire in the shape of the original mount and solder or JB weld a washer on it. Another method may be to get a piece of flat bar the same depth as the bottom horizontal fin. Make a mount and weld it to the flat bar. Then JB weld that flat bar under the bottom horizontal fin. Hopefully it will be out of sight.
