MASCOT January-February 1995

ROADSTER RABBITTINGS

Dave True

The grille surround on the Singer Roadster, particularly the 4AB/4AD, is renowned for its thin steel and poor chrome, and the slats are well known for-their rustability and coming loose. This is a few comments as to how one might improve the slats and their fixings. The original grille was completely chromed, both surround and slats, but (entirely a matter of opinion of course) I think all this chrome looks rather garish and a lot of owners have painted their slats, usually black or red, to get rid of the rust.

When I acquired my second 4AD it came with a reasonable chrome surround and a bundle of new slats. These were not as per original spec. The originals were of a lop-sided channel section with one short arm and one long arm. These replacements have equal length arms, but in fact you would have to look quite hard to distinguish them from the original. The original slats were welded to a plate at their bottom ends which was bolted through the bottom of the surround to the front apron with 4 bolts. They were also secured just over half way up by being spot welded to a thin, flat bar suitably cut to shape which bolts, on each side, to a lug welded on the inside of the surround.

So, how to assemble my 'kit' into an acceptable grille? The first thing I did was to cut the new slats to various lengths to suit the heart shaped top of the surround. I then made a subframe for the bottom of the slats using a thin galvanized metal angle. This was in fact a piece of suspended ceiling trim, but any thin metal could be cut to shape. It is necessary to partly cut the angle to make a mitre in the centre of the grille and the thinness of the metal enables it to be fitted to the less than 90° bottom of the surround. The slats, 6 on each side of the centre slat, were drilled and bolted with very small BA bolts to the subframe such that when assembled they are concealed behind the bottom part of the surround. For the top end of the slats it is necessary to cut a wing shaped piece to fit inside the heart shaped top to the surround. This needs to be of fairly substantial metal, to which the top ends of the slats are bolted, again with small BA bolts such that they are hidden behind the top part of he surround. This top subframe is secured using the Singer badge with its studs running right through the surround, the top subframe and in my case 2 of the slats, although this latter could be avoided by shortening these slats.

Now, with the 4 bolt bottom fixings and the two top 'badge' fixings, if the top subframe is rigid enough then this will be sufficient to secure the slats. The alternative, if greater rigidity is necessary, is to continue the top subframe around inside the surround and bolt it to the lugs provided for the original flat metal cross bar.

No, I haven't forgotten about the centre slat. This is of larger section than the other slats with much longer equal length arms. They tend to get curved inwards and are impossible to straighten out by hand. I looked through my motley collection of slats - the centre one I had was bent like a banana so I selected one of the side slats for use which was nice and straight and had reasonable chrome. This was fixed in the same way as the other slats. In section it doesn't have arms of equal length of course, but you'd have to look at the car from both sides at once to tell this - no mean feat.

The 12 slats are in fact slightly narrower than the original and are galvanized. The grey and the chrome look quite reasonable together and I might leave it at that. I haven't done so yet, but I will paint round the inside of he surround and the subframes with black paint. The actual fixing of the grille surround to the body is by means of two lugs, one on each side about 6" up from the bottom. Each is held to the surround by two rivets which run right through the surround and show on the outside. These lugs have a collar with a hole and mate up with corresponding downward pointing studs welded to the radiator surround.

So I will now have a reasonable looking grille!