No questions today. Consider this as more of a warning. I just got back from the body shop where my Mk2 is (patiently) awaiting some attention. I thought I would bring the shiny grill that came with the car when I bought it, as well as the not very pretty grill that was originally on the car. The test fits really drove home just how hand crafted our cars really are. The studs on the shiny, extra grill don't line up very well with the mounting holes. The original grill still had the center bar in place so I tried swapping that onto the shiny grill and the holes do not line up.... not even close. Neither grill appears to have been impacted enough to significantly change the shape but the shiny grill is at least a quarter inch narrower in the middle. Enough that the mounting holes in the sheet metal are visible on one side or the other, depending on how it is placed.
Fortunately, the car is in primer and the body can be adjusted but I thought it might be worth pointing this out. Test fits are critical!!!
Maybe I do have a question. The mounting holes on my car are not really holes. They are slots and are open to the inside of the opening. Is that typical or did someone cut them out to make the grill fit? I assume there is some sort of large, maybe rectangular washer on the back to hold the grill to the body? No... I didn't think to take a picture.

 

the spare grille could be an S type grille, but I have a Daimler MK- 2 grille that fits my S type perfectly other than the sides curvature is different.

If not an S type grille, could be a MK-1 grille

The U shaped holes are normal. They are like that in my S type. The studs have oblong washers.

 

Picture of the nose of my S Type before fitting the grill. The S Type grill is a different shape to the Mk2. If you compare yours with the second photo of my grill fitted you should see that the S Type grill has a thicker surround at the top and as Jose says I think the profile is a different shape so it fits tight to the nose which is different between the Mk2 and S Type.

 

Cass I think the MK-2 grille is more concave than the S type grille. In other words, the S type grille and nose is flatter overall.

That is what I discovered when I fit the Daimler MK-2 grille to my S type. Everything fits the same, studs line up with holes, until halfway down on each side where the Daimler grille leaves a 3/16 or bigger space between body and grille frame.

Where the hood meets with the nose, the Daimler grille is only about 1/32" distance from the hood front edge. Very very close, but otherwise no interference with opening and closing the hood.

It does look awesome, but I did not like the sides being separated from the body. Someone suggested a seal behind the frame to fill the space.

In your pictures I can see the U shaped open holes which are the same in my car.

With the radiator in place, it is a pain to R&R the grille. At least in the S type it is.

In the poster's case, I would suggest looking behind the nose opening with the better grille being held in situ to find out what the conflict is with the existing U holes and grille studs, and just cut new U holes to make it fit.

 

That car might have had a light bump or rust repair at some time in it's life. Even the S Type had 2 different grill types fitted over it's build life. Mk2 might have had as well. I don't have a Mk2 parts manual.

That said these cars have quite a bit of lead wiping around the grill area & the 2 seams at the top of the grill on either side of the body cross piece between the fenders. I had my car & 2 donor bodies & multiple grills. None of the grills followed any body profile perfectly. Studs lined up OK.

My restorer reshaped the outer grill to a perfect fit to my restoration body prior to sending for chroming. Yes test fits are critical. It's like the chromed brass door window frames. No 2 are the same. Best to try & keep the set your car came with.

Very few grills are a perfect fit. Take a close look at a Jag car show. Most stand proud of the body somewhere.


This grill is just hung there & off centre with slots showing RHS ~ shows lead filling.

 

Thanks for the input, everyone.
Based on the pictures and the fact that both of my grill follow the body shape well, they are both Mk2 grills. They both fit the body curvature very well but the very top of the center vane piece bottoms before the top of the grill itself seats. I did not bring the center bar for my nice grill to the body shop but I will install that and see if it fits better. All that lead loading would likely fill in the area at the top of the grill proper.
Most of my day has been dedicated to repairing the studs. One was broken off a the base. The others had to be shortened and have a 1/2 inch 8-32 stand off added. A screw will go into the standoff to hold it all in place and I'm sure I will need spacers around the standoff to pull it tight. I'm pretty pleased with the repair job!!

 

If any re-chroming is being done they have to protect those studs or the acid wash chews them off.
Good luck!

 

The studs are fragile. It's fairly standard to file them flat, drill and tap, and then use a small screw to attach. I think Geoff Maycock described it in a Practical Classics article a few decades ago.

 

That was essentially what I had to do. I ground it flat, very carefully drilled as deep as I could and tapped the hole for a 6-32 stud. The spacer that fit over that is an 8-32 which actually gripped the 6-32 better than I thought. It was not good enough so the old friend J-B Weld was used on the threads to make sure it never pulls off.

 

Another run up to the body shop yesterday afternoon to test fit the nice grill with its original center bar in place. The good news is that it fit beautifully at the top. The center bar extension at the top perfectly followed the body contour and the grill surround laid flat on the body. I'm very happy with that. There clearly is a difference between the original center bar and the one I test fit last week. The grill need some side to side adjustment but the u-slots will have to be enlarged a little as my new studs are a little larger.
At the bottom, the grill fits into the u-shape of the flange on the body with little room to spare. That seems to be the fit that is shown in Cass's picture of the 3.8S. It appears that there is maybe a quarter inch space below the grill? Assuming the Mk2 is the same, that would tell me that the bumper either comes right up to the grill or actually covers a little bit of the grill if you were to look at it straight on. You would not see any body between the grill and the bumper, correct? Its a little hard to tell from some of the pics here due to the shine and reflection. (Once again, why did I not take a picture with it in place????). Finally, it appears that the U shaped flange/lip on the body under the grill should be parallel to the ground. Does that seem right?
I'm going to also go through my Mk2 book collection and see if I can find any pictures with that level of detail.

 

Another run up to the body shop yesterday afternoon to test fit the nice grill with its original center bar in place. The good news is that it fit beautifully at the top. The center bar extension at the top perfectly followed the body contour and the grill surround laid flat on the body. I'm very happy with that. There clearly is a difference between the original center bar and the one I test fit last week. The grill need some side to side adjustment but the u-slots will have to be enlarged a little as my new studs are a little larger.
At the bottom, the grill fits into the u-shape of the flange on the body with little room to spare. That seems to be the fit that is shown in Cass's picture of the 3.8S. It appears that there is maybe a quarter inch space below the grill? Assuming the Mk2 is the same, that would tell me that the bumper either comes right up to the grill or actually covers a little bit of the grill if you were to look at it straight on. You would not see any body between the grill and the bumper, correct? Its a little hard to tell from some of the pics here due to the shine and reflection. (Once again, why did I not take a picture with it in place????). Finally, it appears that the U shaped flange/lip on the body under the grill should be parallel to the ground. Does that seem right?
I'm going to also go through my Mk2 book collection and see if I can find any pictures with that level of detail.

 

The S Type has a chrome finisher between the bumper & base of the grill. This finisher (25) laps up behind the grill with 2 long points at either side behind the grill. Some were held on by 2 rivets & some by 3.






Bumper off: