STATE OF THE ART Known grill portions of freight vehicles often have not only a grill panel with radiator grille but also further covering elements. The grill panel usually requires several connection points arranged for the purpose in the vehicle's chassis so that the panel can be locked to and, when necessary, raised up from the vehicle's front.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION One object of the invention is to provide a grill panel which can be allowed to cover a major portion of the vehicle's front and can at least partly be connected at pre-existing connection points on the vehicle.

This is achieved by means of the features indicated in the patent claims below.

According to one version of the invention, each mounting is associated with a hinge for a side door of the vehicle.

The hinge brackets, which are already dimensioned for the relatively large loads arising from the side doors, enable stable connection of the grill panel, which may therefore be dimensioned to cover a major portion of the vehicle's front and avoid the need for further covering elements or bodywork components. In particular, grill panel sides angled rearwards may extend all the way to the front edges of both side doors, where the

common hinge connections may delineate the intermediate gaps with great dimensional accuracy.

In the preferred embodiment, each mounting is associated with a hinge element which is fastened to the vehicle. This simplifies assembly work in that hinges and panel mountings can be fitted in a single operation.

In the preferred embodiment, an upper pair of mountings are also pivot brackets which make it possible to pivot the grill panel upwards. A lower pair of mountings are positional retainers in the form of elongate hinge pins which determine the lateral position of the grill panel so that its sides adjoin the side doors in a planar manner.

Further mountings may optionally be arranged to lock the grill panel to the front of the vehicle.

BRIEF OF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 depicts a grill panel according to the invention; Fig. 2 depicts on a larger scale an upper pivot connection for the grill panel in Fig. 1; and Fig. 3 depicts likewise on a larger scale a lower position-fixing connection for the grill panel in Fig. 1.

DESCRIPTION OF AN EMBODIMENT The grill panel 10 depicted in Fig. 1 incorporates an apertured housing 12 which via an only partly depicted supporting frame 14 is connected, pivotably upwards, to a front portion of an undepicted motor vehicle, particularly a freight vehicle. More specifically, the panel 10 is pivotable upwards in a known manner in the direction of the arrow 46 about an axis 44 from the depicted lowered position to a raised position to allow maintenance and repair of the vehicle.

A pair of hinge arms 16,16 connected to the supporting frame 14 protrude upwards from the upper ends of the rearwards-angled sides of the grill panel 10. This keeps the upper edge of the grill panel 10 clear of the vehicle's undepicted windscreen and other parts of the vehicle's front situated above when it is pivoted up to the raised position. As particularly indicated in Fig. 2, the free end of each hinge arm 16 is supported for pivoting via a bearing 18 on a mounting in the form of a pivot bracket 26 which protrudes forwards. According to the invention, the pivot bracket 26 is anchored (e. g. welded or screwed) to or manufactured integrally with the element 22 of an upper door hinge 20.

The element 22 is fastened in a conventional manner to the vehicle's A-pillar 40 and supports the upper elements of the hinge 20, i. e. a hinge pin 28 and the hinge element 24 which supports the vehicle's undepicted side door for pivoting about the axis 42 defined by the pin 28.

The lower door hinge 30 depicted in Fig. 3 has likewise an element 32 fastened to the vehicle, a hinge pin 38 and a pivotable hinge element 34. An extension 36 of the hinge pin 38 protrudes downwards from the hinge 30. A protrusion 15 bent rearwards on an adjacent part of the supporting frame 14 is arranged to engage with the extension 36.

More specifically, the extension 36 serves as a fixed mounting or lateral guide for the laterally relatively flexible grill panel 10 when the inside of the protrusion 15 engages with the outside of the fixed extension 36. This makes it possible for the angled side of the grill panel 10 and the adjacent undepicted side door to adjoin one another in a planar manner with great precision. The fixed extension 36 preferably engages in only guiding unilateral abutment against the protrusion 15, but it is also possible to provide the protrusion 15 with undepicted stop or snaplock devices or the like which respectively define an end position and bring about more positive locking of the grill panel 10 to the hinge 30.

In the preferred embodiment, positive locking of the grill panel 10 to the vehicle is achieved by means of a pair of fastening lugs 50 (only one of them depicted in Fig. 1) arranged at the opposite lower ends of the supporting frame 14. Each fastening lug 50 is connected, e. g. by a threaded connection, to a mounting/fastening point in the vehicle's

chassis (not depicted). Within the scope of the invention, it is nevertheless conceivable to connect a possibly smaller grill panel at the four hinges only.

The grill panel 10 need not necessarily be arranged for pivoting motion about the horizontal axis 44. Within the scope of the invention it is also conceivable, in a manner not depicted, for the grill panel 10 to be pivotable about the axis 42, by each of the two hinges for one of the side doors also having a movable hinge element for the grill panel.

Each of the two hinges for the opposite side door may then be provided with mountings which lock the panel in the closed position.

Although the grill panel depicted and described is of the vertical type which hardly completes the vehicle's front, the invention may also be applied to grill panels of the engine bonnet type which protrude to a greater or lesser extent at the front of the vehicle (not depicted).