[M_a_t_t]

The rest of the pictures are on my camera. I will upload them when it is completely finished. Here is my first attempt (and it looks like only) at the grill block. Again cut out of a water heater skin. I bent a 1/2" flange on the 2 short sides of a 27.5"x10.5" piece. Then I shrunk the bumper side. I didn't shrink anything on the upper side. It didn't put a curve all the way across the panel though so I got out the english wheel and rolled it across the 2 shrunk sections to roll it over. That worked. Once I had that pretty well lined up I test fit it, but couldn't close the hood to check it. I marked a line and cut out a notch so that the hook could grab the latch and shut. I had to stretch the 2 sides back out a little bit as I had over-shrunk it. Now the short sides touched the hood, but there was a gap in the middle because the hood has a curve to it. At first I tried english wheeling the middle 1/3 section to push it out and curve it. It seemed to help but wasn't enough. I trimmed the top of it so that it was in line with the notch I had made earlier. Then I used the shrinker on the middle 1/3, a little heavier in the dead center though. Once I finished that and test fit it again it was all pretty well lined up. There was still a little gap, but because of how it is screwed into the bumper I could just pull up a little bit and it filled the gap well. I then used a box to make some endplate template. Unfortunately the bumper is cracked and broken a little on top so I had to modify that side a little more to get it to fit well. At this point I was thinking about trying to bead roll the mercury logo onto it so it wasn't so plain looking. I didn't want to mess up all that work so I got another piece of metal, attempted to hand draw the logo and then bead roll it. I don't think it turned out very well. I will definitely try again though. I stopped there as I had been messing with it for awhile and the sun was starting to set.

I want to strip the panel down and paint it once it is finished. I need to see if I can remove/level the marks from the wheel though. They aren't very deep though so if I lay the primer on a little thick it will probably mask it pretty well. I am planning on welding the end pieces on (of course before paint), backup attachment is pop rivets. This was kind of an introduction to it before I attempt to start patching rust holes in the car.

TLDR:
I did record the process so a video version of that description should be available once I finish it completely.