Two types of Willys Slat Grills?

[John Carmichael]

Does anyone have more information on the two slightly different designs of Willys Slat Grills?
My Jeep, which is a GPW that was rebuilt in England at the end of the war from surplus and damaged Jeeps (known in the UK as a BITSA - bits of this and that) has a slat grill and Willys cylinder head on a GPW chassis and GPW engine etc.
Now I am in Canada having shipped the jeep here when I immigrated I have been bringing it up spec for a Canadian contract jeep with lifting rings, headlight brush guards etc.
When investigating the design of the brush guards I found photos of a slat grill jeep with the guards fitted and decided to make up these guards.
Interestingly the photo showed a different design of the grill in the area above the headlight where the guard is fitted. My grill is different in this area. I have attached a photo of my grill and a second photo of the other grill with the guard.
Does anyone know anything more about these two different designs such as production dates, contract details etc.?

[Keith Orpin]

Hi John,
Looks like your grill has been reversed at some point in it's life, somehow. Of all the pictures I have studied over the years the reinforcing angle is on the back of the grill
The brackets for the marker lights need taking off and fitting on the other side, which will allow you to refit the grill the right way round.
The other thing I noticed, is the one bracket shown on your image, on top of the grill holding the wiring loom has been bent back on it's self, which also looks wrong.
If you would like me to post a picture of my grill, then please let me know
Hope this helps
Regards
Keith

[John Carmichael]

Hi Keith
If the grill is the wrong way round then someone has cut off the marker light brackets and fitted them on the other side which seems a totally pointless exercise unless they had perhaps rusted away. The brackets look to be in fairly good condition with limited rust pock marks.
In the picture of the other grill I can see the reinforcing angle to the rear.
The main difference between the grills is that (as viewed) the vertical bar to the left of the headlight goes straight up on mine whereas it curves around above the headlight on the other grill. Also my grill does not have a similar curved bar on the right side of the headlight. These curved bars fit in with the angled sides of the brush guard.
A closer inspection of this part of my grill seems to indicate that the top of the left vertical bar has been cut out and then butt jointed with a straight section. The right curved section has just been removed. There are very faint signs of the remains of welds where the curved bars would have been fitted, but these have been almost completely and carefully chiselled or ground out.
You are right about the wiring harness brackets which if not bent backwards would be flush with the one side of the grill (in my case the front).
It seems that someone did a neat job in modifying this grill.
When I found the Jeep as a wreck (painted pink!) with no original bodywork whatsoever behind a line across the front of the front seats, there was one larger very rusty headlight remaining which had a Ministry of Supply marking on it. So perhaps this was modified to take bigger diameter lights.
It looks as though I will have to remove the grill and return it to its correct shape and turn it right way round. Another pandemic project!
I would be very interested in pictures of your grill, especially if you can give me some close ups of the outer curved bracket so I can fabricate it correctly.
Then I can fabricate brush guards that look correct.

Many thanks for your help.
regards John.

[Keith Orpin]

Hi John,
Just been out and photograph my grill, which hopefully will help. I've also spotted on your grill , the first bar should have a small set on it, and not straight up to the top frame.
Looks like you have a bit of work to do to put this grill right, not beyond the whit of man !
If you need any measurements, please let me know
Regards
Keith