69-70 grill differences (again)
 

OK. There has been some discussion about this topic again. I borrowed some pics (owners please forgive me) showing two different versions. Notice the Black lines by the markers.

My questions:

Are the grills like the one on the white Blazer still available?

How come the headlight bezels are black and not chrome? (my 70 Blazer CST is the same way)

Any insight?

Davy

other pic
 

#2

I may get my head bit off, but I don't think the chrome headlight bezels were stock on either 69 or 70. I know that's all they make for aftermarket replacements on our trucks. I think the other years had chrome available, but stock was painted.

I don't have it with me at work, but the dofference between a 69 and 70 grill is just the inner grill. 70 is unique as only the 69 style is reproduced.

Bill, you are correct about the bezels. 69-70 were painted. 71-72 polished.

OK, now I have two vehicles that I know have the factory grills. My '69 and my brother's '70. Here is the differences:

Here is a closeup of a factory 69 grill between the marker lights and headlights:
http://udall.com/pics/bowen/6772/6770/69a.jpg

Here is the factory 70:
http://udall.com/pics/bowen/6772/6770/70a.jpg

the other side, 69:
http://udall.com/pics/bowen/6772/6770/69b.jpg

The other side 70:
http://udall.com/pics/bowen/6772/6770/70b.jpg

The egg-crate part, 69:
http://udall.com/pics/bowen/6772/6770/69c.jpg

The egg-crate part, 70:
http://udall.com/pics/bowen/6772/6770/70c.jpg

A closer look at the 'lines' in the '70:
http://udall.com/pics/bowen/6772/6770/70d.jpg

As it is plain to see, 69 grills have lines out to the bezel, and a solid patterned egg-crate behind (in gray).

70s have lines that end just past the marker light and the egg crate has the same basic pattern, but there are recesses that don't get chrome, that give the appearance of 'lines' in the grill. The chrome bezels on the '70 are factory too.

Both of these pickups were made in Freemont, CA.

ckhd, are you absolutely postive that the 70 has the factory original grill? Both 69's and 70's have the same outer grill. The only difference is in the inner.

maybe he is noticing something different we have never noticed.

I'm with Gee Emm on this...inner was only thing that changed from 69 to 70...it was 71 to 72 that the outter changed and not inner...

i know the parts truck is a 70 and it has a 70 style grill like he said...
http://www.myoldtruck.com/Gallery/da...icture_058.jpg
pic of whole thing
http://www.myoldtruck.com/Gallery/da...icture_059.jpg

on truck
http://www.myoldtruck.com/Gallery/da...icture_038.jpg

too bad this grill isnt all tore up... its cracked and needs help. otherwise id stick it on my truck

now the grill on my 69/70(dont really know what year it is prob. 70... title was switched from the parts truck to this truck by previous owner

truck needed to take a shower but
http://www.myoldtruck.com/Gallery/da...icture_034.jpg
it doesnt have the black lines and black letters :crazy:
neither goes all the way to the side. maybe the outer grills

board membrs truck i beleive he said it was a 69. look at the grill

but here is a 69 with this style grill...

whats the deal with my outer grill? why does it have no black. ive seen 69 and 70 with both styles of grill. maybe it depends on where it was made

because here is a truck with a near perfect version of the "69 grill" you were talking about

Ok now my 70 has black bezels and the correct inner but the outer grill looks like the one in your 69 pic the lines go all the way to the bezel.
Nothing I see leads me to believe the grill has been changed but who knows.

the reproduction grills look liek the 70 ones you weer talking about http://www.truckandcarshop.com/truckshopsale.htm
http://www.truckandcarshop.com/truck...69-90069-1.jpg

pic

I love it, the never ending saga of whos right and whos wrong on the 69 and 70. Mines still for sale on the parts board. Don't even know what to say it is anymore. IMO, I think GM did whatever they felt like during this era.
A prime example is a recent visit I made to Ford on monday. We produced some bushings for their waterpuimps on their trucks and when I get there to go over some recent issues, they have two different prototype runs mixed together. When I confronted them on it, they said "Oh thats not a big deal"
These were two totally different versions. I feel this same situation is why there is soo much confusion on the grills. GM workers probablly just said, "OH well they fit the same and look the same, no big deal" Just my theory on this. All the big three are terrible when it comes to tracibility and consistancy. I know, I have dealt with them all for about 15 years now.
Again just my opinion.

My personal belief on this is that the style with the lines going all the way to the bezels are the ones that came on a truck from the factory. The other version is the style now being reproduced. I can't see that GM would have had 2 different styles of dies to stamp these out. Maybe they did the little change so that you could tell if the front end of a truck was hit and had been replaced, yah thats a little far fetched maybe. Who knows

I have all kinds of magazine ads of these trucks from 30 years ago and all of the trucks in the pictures have the continued line style.


Since we are showing grills, here you go.

I had a friend that was a parts guy at the Chevy dealer. CKHD is right on the inner grill. We were looking at an original parts book at the counter and it had a sidenote hand written in dated 1970 that said original 1970 inner grills were never made for a replacement part. It referred you to the 1969 inner grill. I later read this in a magazine. This guy had worked the same parts counter since the early sixties. Sadly, he passed away last Spring. He was a great source of information.

GeeEmm,

69s, like yours, have the lines out to the bezel. 70's lines stop just after the markers, and they have black paint accent. They are different. The grille on my brother's '70 is factory original. It's the one it had on it when it left Freemont 33 years ago. It's not a reproduction. The reproductions that look like it were reproduced using a 70 grill as a model. If you look closely at the ones that are being touted as 'made from original GM tooling' (the ones with the letters), you will also see that it is the '70 style grill.

I have no doubt that there was some crossover during the year change. I'd bet money that some of the last 69s have 70 grilles and some of the first 70s have 69 grilles. I just can't see Chevy being organized enough to have the exact amount of the proper grill that when they shut down on the last day of producing the 69s, they had just used the last 69 grill and a fresh shipment of 70 grilles were waiting for the next day.

dinnut, that green pickup has been highly reworked. I serously doubt that the grill on it is the original one that came with it. The red one probably has a reproduced one, which would be the '70s style.

I don't trust 'accuracy' issues on ones that have been through a 'restoration' or 'rodstoration'. My brother is the second owner of his '70, and we know the original owner. I am the third owner of my '69 and I have had it for 15 years, and my dad had it for about 7 years before that. I know they are the originals, I know that's how Chevrolet intended the grilles to be.

I would be willing to bet there is no 69/70 grille change. What I would be willing to bet is GM had the grills made by two outside vendors and the difference you see is the way the two vendors interpreted the drawings they made them from. I bet if you really checked it out on some original trucks, the assembly plant would matter more than the year. They did the same thing with Quadrajets...some are Rochester some are Carter within the same years.

Very interesting. Thanks for all the replies. So, once again GM was very inconsistant with model years.

Has anyone seen a NOS grill with the "continued lines"? not on a truck, but in a box that is available for sale.

thats what i was thinking too tom hand... that the assembly plant might have had something to do with it.

I'm with tom hand and dinnut on this one. I've dealt with a lot of similar issues on my 1971 and 1972 Chevelles. Different tail lights, inner door panels, lots of little things.

Remember too that when a car or truck went down the line back then the stuff you bolted on was all written down, not computerized. I personally know of a 1969 Ford LTD that was ordered from a dealer. As it went down the line the individual who ordered it told his pals what he wanted. This vehicle had a 390 cu. in. engine, "cop" suspension, transmission, all kinds of stuff "extra". When it got to the dealer all they noticed was the am/fm stereo so that is the only "extra" he paid for.

The point of that story is that if you can get away with all that extra stuff, imagine the difference in quality and style of each part that may have been created by two or more different suppliers. It didn't pay to have stuff made in Florida and shipped to Janesville, Freemont, and where ever else they bolted these trucks together. There was probably at least two grill manufacturers back then which would account for the two different styles we see today. I bet one plant made them for the line only and the other made grills for the assembly line and for overstock. I'll also bet the ones we see today as NOS came from the cheaper supplier and that is probably why they got the overstock contract.

Sadly we'll probably never know exactly what happened. My 1970 front clip came to me with a 1972 outer grill. I bought a 1969 or 1970 outer at a swap meet. It has "the lines" outside of the blinkers. Not to mention even if you have a Cheyenne super with a factory big block and every option you could think of, and could some how prove it is all original, it will NEVER be worth as much as a documented 1970 LS6 Chevelle convertable or some similar vehicle.

Like I said, I have these magizine ads, in fact they are in frames all over the wall in this room, as I look around the room 3 of the ads I have up are for 1970 Chevs, another 5 are for 1969 Chevs all of the grilles on the trucks in the ads are the same. I am working on a 10 year restoration of my Dads 70 CST. He has owned it for the past 30 years. His original grille is the continued line style. He bought a new grille for his truck through the local GM dealer, it is the other style.