GrandWillys Project

[Rick Mullin]

I never chime in on such things as it is your vision and your project. I have been following this thread and am very impressed with the skills and thought that you have put into your build. The results are truly professional. So I am breaking my rule of commenting on style because I believe you got the proportions correct with the taller slots. Shortening will make it look squatted. If there is a need to alter height, I would consider moving the eyebrow molding up or down or making one that is a slightly different width. A possible comparative study would be the transition of grills from the Rolls-Royce Cloud I to the Cloud III series. Just my opinion. I am sure that with your track record, anything you do will be done well and with considerable thought.

[Superleggera]

[artwork] Bottom edge of the openings raised upward per your mention.

note: Remember the color you paint the truck will also change how it looks ultimately. You are seeing a lot of "black" against unpainted steel here. That won't be the case with the color you indicated you had selected earlier.

[cliffrod]

Marcus, the only thing I can add is to consider the context and lighting in which the composition will be viewed.

When I cut a stone in studio, what it looks like in studio is largely irrelevant. This is a detail many sculptors who are not professionally trained will overlook. 16'-20' to the rafters seems huge compared to an 8' shop ceiling but means nothing compared to the sky outdoors. I have to produce work to demonstrate properly in supremely overwhelming natural light and the giant studio of the outdoors. Natural light is so invasive that it clarifies details (good and bad) that no electric light can. A huge job in studio is tiny outdoors. The big jobs always shrink as they go out the door and then shrink even more once they're installed... It's just another way God and the stone humbles the sculptor.

Details can be 100% dimensionally accurate per specs but still look vastly different whether indoors or outdoors- especially actual penetrations and negative space between solid surfaces. Solid or continous mass is impacted differently, but is also perceived differently indoors vs outdoors.

So everything I carve is done with these things in mind. The work has to be successful in the context of the installation, not in the artificial and temporary manipulated context of the studio. I have to understand what I think looks right now and what will look right then to succeed.

Your Jeep will be experienced outdoors, not the confines of your small (by comparison) shop. I would address many of these grill considerations with the vehicle outside. Both negative space between solids and illumination of components now hidden in darkness will be more readily perceived. You may find the things now concealed in shadow behind the grill are a bigger issue visually. Addressing such details often impact the more superficial components. Simply moving it outside will shrink details, probably even lightening the shadows between the grill bars. That could make the bars appear thicker and the holes between them look not quite as big.

Hope this makes sense.

[crystallographic]

Originally Posted by cliffrod

Your Jeep will be experienced outdoors, not the confines of your small (by comparison) shop. I would address many of these grill considerations with the vehicle outside. Both negative space between solids and illumination of components now hidden in darkness will be more readily perceived. You may find the things now concealed in shadow behind the grill are a bigger issue visually. Addressing such details often impact the more superficial components.

Hey Marcus,
When we built up the old Wagoneer at HAC years ago, we had a "visibility-through-the-grille" prob, too. The engine was jammed right up behind it so's you could see all the belts cris-crossing the V12 - since the single large radiator had to be tossed in favor of two small ones, each behind the headlights - with fans. The engine was just too big, even though we lengthened the front clip and hood by four inches .....



https://www.fourwheeler.com/project-...r-the-jerrari/



It took a lot of flat black foo-can spritzing but we got it all toned down enough to not attract attention (knee-capping of executives at the time being so damned prevalent !!) We had orders to 1) make it go, stop, turn and 2) look completely stock and not attract any attention.



Since it was built in the Harrah's "Slot Machine Shop" there were no "in process" pix taken / allowed.
We just did what we had to do...


- But it was nothing compared to what you are doing!

[Steve Hamilton]

Marcus
When I read Ricks post on the shorter grille looking squaty, my first though was that I would agree with him.
Now seeing the photoshop change I say that I would vote to leave it as is.
When I look at the two grilles hanging on the wall the 48 has a taller look even in the stock form.

I also agree with AC to look it over from different directions outside before you finalize your decision.

In the end all that matters is that you are happy with how it looks!

Keep up the good work.

Steve

[onya]

Good morning Marcus,

Ford Jail Bar Grills look cool and the Willys looks good like that too, Jail Bars don't have any Horizontal members.

[drivejunk]

When I was young, at one point the family had like a '76 Cherokee with Levi's interior. I thought the coolest thing on it was the slot over the grille. So I took the liberty (haha) of applying the thought here, in a way. And thats all this is, just a thought. Hope nobody minds.

[Gojeep]

Wow, thank you all for the interest and the many comments. Taking them all on board to help sort this out. It is very true that once it has been painted it could look completely different in regards to the negative space. The darker the colour the less obvious it will be.
So if I am not completely happy in raw steel, I might well be once there is colour.
I am already in the process of shortening just the slots back to stock height, but leaving the outside grille dimension the same. So it will still look different from the grille after I have just widened it.
See what it looks like then before deciding what to do next. Least I have a number of options to try after that.

[Jon Thompson]

Marcus that is absolutely beautiful work!

[Fargoman]

Why not Photoshop the front of the vehicle in the colour (or close to it) you want and see if it looks better or worse.

Some virtual cutting and welding is easier than actually doing it.