Norb purchased this basketcase and is working to transform it into a custom wagon.  However, he is puzzled about the grille.

Norb writes, “I own a 1953 wagon that was a plow truck out in Wyoming for most of it’s life. It came to me with a Ford Y-block motor. The frame and suspension were shot, but the body is pretty good. I chopped the top and put it on a shortened Dodge Dakota chassis with a 318 V8 and 5spd. trans. Should make a nice little hotrod.  I know it was a “Jeep salad” when I got it. It had been hit in the front and repaired many years ago. I cannot ID the grill though. The side aprons have parking lights on them. The air intake hole in mine looks factory, but they are usually below the parking lights.”

I asked Dan for his input.  He wrote, “It looks like someone added a heater inlet hole to an early wagon grill (which were solid and didn’t have a hole) and then added extra marker lights also in a different position than factory. The heater inlet hole looks both larger and higher than what the factory added to the later wagons. I’m not sure when the factory added the heater inlet hole, but my beat guess is late 1950s.”

So, has anyone seen a factory wagon grille with the intake hole where Norb’s is?

For comparison, here is an image search for 1953 Wagon grilles