Rear grill for CMC?

Does anybody know if the rear grill from V.S. will fit in a CMC? If not, can an origonal grill be made to work?
Thanks,
Karl Ruiter

I don't think either would fit the CMC opening.

I spent many, many hours trying to make the CMC grill look better.

Karl, the VS grille is a quarter inch or so bigger on all sides, and will require you to grind away the inside lip that holds the CMC grille in place. It attaches differently, too.
I thought I was going to do that once, but passed on the idea and sold the VS grille. The CMC "hibachi" seems to have better curvature, too. You might want to keep what you have and avoid a headache.

Actually, it wasn't that much of a big deal. I never received my coveted Hibachi grill from CMC, so I bought a grill from VS.

Yes, it is bigger all around, so I cut the opening to match and glassed in four small (1/2") tabs where the mounting screws go and screwed it in.

I think it took two nights to finish it, as I had to let the tab glassing cure overnight. I also added a grill O-ring from Tweeks (Mid America) to finish it off.

It should be pointed out that Mr. Nichols is a semi-retired genius with six hands and a very supportive better half.
If you're crafty like he is, your car will be the belle of the ball.
Don't paint it opalescent white, though. He's already thought of that.
;)

Really! Doing a VS to CMC grill transplant isn't a big deal!

Of course, I did it while the car was still in gel coat. If your car is painted, then that's probably another whole conundrum.

But then, if you already have the CMC grill, you can recycle it in your Hibachi....

By the way, Karl, the VS grill is the same as you would get from a place like Mid-America or Stoddard's and is supposed to fit an original (steel) Speedster.

gn

Thanks for the input guys. What I have right now is the nothin'-at-all style grill. The car is in gelcoat (where it is not bare glass). So my options are 1) recut deck lit to fit vs/stock grill. 2) wait for a CMC grill to pop up here or 3) cut one on my CNC mill.
Options 1 is looking pretty good to me, as I suspect I need to cut some air holes in the decklid anyway and fiberglass work does not scare me.

This works well.

While we're on the grille question - Are the grills from the speedster/roadster/cabriolette different profile than the normal 356 "fast back" Coupe? Seems the trunk lids are different profile - but assume grilles are perhaps all the same?

It is my understanding that they are two different profiles.

Alan
Do you really have that center section under the grill totally open or is there something clear to stop the water? I am in Honolulu and when it rains it RAINS so I an wondering how much I can open it up without inviting a soaking.
-Karl

Ah....the RAIN question.

We had a lot of that at Carlisle this year (ask Lane) and we found that those cars that did not have drain holes at the bottom of the air channels under the engine cover soon filled the channels with water and, when it began to trickle out, it lands right on the air cleaners. Then, when it becomes hard to start, the owner opens the engine cover to see what's what and dumps about another quart of water onto each air cleaner, thereby saturating it. Put those two together and we had several waterlogged cars and at least one with hydrolock (the water ran into the carb, down into the cylinder, filling it, and preventing the piston from going to the top of the cylinder).

Not a good time. Opening up LOTS of space under the grill (as Alan has done) is fine, but he and a bunch of us now make sure the drain holes are in the channels over at the sides of the cover - take a look at the cover underside and you'll probably see where they should be.

3/16" - 1/4" should do nicely. Let me know if you need a picture and I'll take one for you

The other thing I would do if I lived in Hawaii or some other mega-rain-type-place, would be to get some air cleaner water shields (they look like inverted bread pans over the air cleaners) to keep the water out. Carey Hines sells 'em, or with very little tinkering you could make up you own out of plastic (Tupperware comes to mind) or aluminum baking pans.

A seldom mentioned fact is that the water shields also act as small megaphones making your lusty carb noises even throatier!!

gn

Totally open ,when parked outside in wet weather I use a piece of 8" x 13" foil coated insulation, as you close the lid it forms it self nicely over the air cleaner ~Alan

After getting caught in a surprise thunderstorm at work today (I drove the Speedy), the rain hats are high on this weekend's agenda. I was fast enough with the plastic bag to prevent a problem today, but that's a hassle. For now I will just fit the hats and leave 'em black, but once I resolve my oil leak I'll probably paint 'em red and maybe add a Porsche logo or some stripes or something creative.

Paint 'em up with German flags?

http://www.33ff.com/flags/XL_flags/Germany_flag.gif