The wire mesh fabric used for the OEM Pantera front radiator grill and rear AC condenser grill is made of Brass, not steel. Brass is expensive, silver solders well to the stainless steel trim bezel, and doesn’t rust.
(Source: http://server.detomasolist.com/pipermail/detomaso/2023-October/114297.html)
Our Pantera vendors sell complete replacement grills which if fine if your entire grill is missing or mangled beyond repair, but they do not sell just the wire-mesh material to repair your grill if the stainless trim-surround is in decent shape.
The wire-mesh material can be sourced from the Howard Wire Cloth Company in Hayward which specializes in just this sort of thing.
The Howard Wire Company sells a 1/2″ sq. mesh inter crimp with .080 wire, available in steel, stainless steel, brass, galvanized and electro polished stainless. It comes in 4 foot wide rolls with a $50 minimum order. There is also a 5/8″ sq. mesh that has a .542″ opening that may be just as appropriate.
There are differences between the grilles on the early cars (1971-72) versus the late cars (Aug-72-on) which include different materials, mounting methods, and size of the grille mesh.
The same material is used for both the front and rear grilles on the car. However, the material in the front grille is at a 45-degree angle to the ground, and the material on the rear grille (for he A/C) but is oriented parallel to the ground. We have no idea why the difference.
Differences between early and late grilles follow:
I’ve posted a photo of this material atop my early .51″ grille to show the difference:
http://www.poca.com/index.php/gallery/?g2_itemId=2028
Now, the reality is that nobody is ever going to tell the difference of 5/100ths or 9/100ths of an inch in your grille spacing. But if you’re going to buy new material, you might as well be happy with it. The stuff pictured above is called 1/2″ mesh; they also make a 5/8″ mesh which has a 0.545″ distance between the wires. In fact, they make a whole lot of different options:
https://www.howardwire.com/square_mesh.html
The sample that I got is called “2 Mesh, .080 wire”, and the website claims
that the opening is .420 inches, which my digital micrometer indicates is true.
If you have a mangled valance, usually the mesh itself is in decent shape. It could probably be cut out, gently hammered flat, sandblasted, powder-coated, then attached to the inside of the new valance, and you’d be good to go. But if yours is really demolished (or missing entirely), then this is probably the best solution.
Supposedly their minimum order is $50. The stuff is sold from a four-foot-wide roll; a two-foot length gives enough material to do both the lower valance, and the front grille, and costs exactly $50, conveniently enough. (Well, actually, I told him I needed a two-foot length and he quoted me $50; I didn’t think to ask if three feet would have cost any more? It’s possible that this stuff is substantially cheaper than $25 a foot, and I just was quoted the minimum order price).
Ordering info etc. can be found here: www.howardwire.com
Another possible source of wire mesh for the grille is:
https://www.mcnichols.com/wire-mesh/square