Ace carpets

[pjbowman]

$5000.00  US to rebuild and rechrome your old  brass Ace grill  is blooming expensive,  Could be cheaper to  Fedex  or USP  ( Track) your old grill to Brasscraft  i UK and they will strip, repair re-chrome and re assemble your origonal grill and airmail it back far cheaper.

Worth having a few words or  exchange of emails.

Fire a email to Tim Isle,s who has employed Chris at Brasscraft a few times, He has a very high standard of workmanship and is reliable.
 He manufactures dozens of grills for the Cobra and Cbra replica market,  the main supplier/manufacturer in UK possibly Europe.

Good Luck

Keith
.

Makes sense Keith. The $5K estimate was simply my shop saying they really didn' know what it would cost until they sent it out to the specialist, so that may be way high. I will be following up to see what the rechromer thinks one he has actually received the grill. I know he has done other period grills such as Ferrari, so should have a decent idea of what it will take. Will let the group know what I hear.

Thanks everyone!

Peter

[AC Ace Bristol]

.
Alan Isselhard

The vertical brass slats in the Ace grill are a drawn section of 20/22 gauge flat brass strip, formed from one piece of flat brass drawn through rollers, each end is threaded, so when built into the grill frame the vertical piping profile are secured by screws which in turn are soldered,
This profile has not been  commercially available for many years.

Cris at Brasscraft has been making AC Brass grills and Windscreenframes ( Flat & Curved) for 35 years, supplying AC Cars direct and the majority of Cobra kit car manufacturers in the UK.
The building of New  and / or refurbishment of Ace grills is a laborious and skilled job, using  special jigs and tools to ensure accuracy, another skill required
 In  assembly is to solder direct to chrome.

Cris has a lead time of about  three months, a template is made of each grill prior to dismantling , price is obviously
subject condition of grill upon receipt at Brasscraft Ltd..  .. budget £1,000.00 / £1,200.00 and allow minimum of 3 months ( 12 / 14 working weeks)

Alan , please note I do not have a vested interest in Brasscraft Ltd, But like Tim Isles and many ACOC Members have used the skill and service of  Cris
over the past 18/20 years, rest assured his workmanship and reliability  is 100%.
Tel no :   0044 (0) 1252 782 702

Hopefully this answers questions in your last email,   Have copied to Forum as it could be of interest to others following this thread.... 

Keith

[markn]

I'd happily make the aluminium ones all day long, the only tricky part with the brass ones is the soldering after chroming though its not to difficult. I would love to know exactly when AC changed from brass to aluminium? Anyone know? I'm pretty sure I know why they did though.