Fun project with my son, M38a1 grille wall hanger

Beast · Post by **Beast** » Thu May 30, 2019 1:58 pm

So the other weekend at the Findlay Military Show, my son pointed out a nice 52' Jeep M38a1 grille and said that it would look cool hanging in his room. So after picking one up for a steal ($35) we brought it home and began working on it. We planned to add some lights to the headlight buckets and marker lights. And we are also planning on adding green LED rope light to the back edge to give it a backlit green glow on the wall.

I had a set of buckets from a Humvee we made fit.

A fresh coat of OD #24087

For headlights I ordered a cheap set of 7" H4 conversion lights from Amazon so that we could have an open spot to mount some 120v LED bulbs.

Luckily the lights came with a set of plastic block-off plugs for the light sockets which we were able to modify to hold a set of small light candelabra sockets with small LED bulbs intended for use in refrigerators. That way they will snap right into the back of the lights using the stock clips.

All mounted up and a test of how well the lights will work.

We added green LED rope light along the back edge and with the way it will mount will leave about a 4" gap to the wall which should make a nice backlit glow.

We finished the project on Saturday and got it hung in his room before all his buddies came to spend the night. It was a big hit and all his buddies liked it.

All in all it was a great father son project and I'm glad he came up with it. It's always fun when Zach wants to spend time in the garage with his old man!

RICKG · Post by **RICKG** » Thu May 30, 2019 2:59 pm

Zach and his buddies think his "old man" is pretty cool.. ya me too.

RonD2 · Post by **RonD2** » Thu May 30, 2019 7:44 pm

Grand Slam!

mdainsd · Post by **mdainsd** » Thu May 30, 2019 8:21 pm

That came out great! Nice job. And thats how we attract the next generation of MV fan/collector!

Kendall · Post by **Kendall** » Thu May 30, 2019 8:31 pm

That is COOL! Nothing better than father/son projects.

Beast · Post by **Beast** » Fri May 31, 2019 8:06 am

Thanks guys. I'm still amazed at how well it turned out. And I'm still kicking myself for not buying all the grilles the guy had. All in all we have about $200 total into the whole project and I figure I could easily double that to sell them to guys as man cave and garage art. I guess I'll have to keep my eyes out at the few next swap meets.