Heater Intake Grille

Only one version listed in the Parts Catalogue for all years and all models - AHH6102, but a replacement bought for Vee in 2017 has a significantly different curvature to the original and doesn't fit the panel very well. Bee's was replaced in 1990 and was a good fit being the same as the original, and both old (kept, of course) and new are the same as Vee's original.

My first attempt to compare the curvatures was to lay a straight-edge with its centre of balance over the last square hole in the grill at one end, then measure the distance between the other end of the grille and the straight-edge. Several milli-metres less, difficult to photograph with a rule, but you can see the difference between Vee's problem grille at the top, Bee's good grille in the middle, and Vee's original grille at the bottom.

Then as I was using a spirit-level I hit on the idea of comparing the bubble positions when positioned over the end square hole on each grille. Vee's replacement here with the bubbles barely off-centre:

And Bee's replacement here with the bubbles right at the ends of the glass tube. Ideally both cars need to be on flat and level ground of course, which as can be seen in both of the above is the case as the bubble offset is the same on both sides for both cars:

Then I had the idea of going back to method 1 but using drill shanks to gauge the gap rather than measure directly. With the straight-edge pressed down over the last square hole one end, I inserted drills between the straight-edge and the last bar at the other end. With Bee a 15/16" drill shank was fractionally too big and a 7/16" too small so about 11.4mm, whereas on Vee I could only get a 5.5mm drill shank in, so Vee's new grille has half the curvature of the other three. It wouldn't stay in with plastic sockets, so I've had to reuse the original spire clips.