69-70 grilles

[robert wright]

My son and I restored a 70 shortbed for his daily driver. I've heard that the 70 grille differed from the 69 slightly, and is difficult to find. Our truck came with a 69 grille, and I've not seen an example of the 70 except for a junkyard find.

Anyone know more about the difference, and is it worthwhile to get this grille for our truck?

[Palf70Step]

The inner grill is different between the two.
The 70 has a spacing pattern, I believe it is 9 columns, where the 69 is solid. Here is my 70's This is the only shot I have at work so I don't know if you can see the difference from yours or not.

The 69 is the only one that is being manufactured as a repop, so it is the only one you can buy unless you find a good original somewhere.

[Kris Fuller]

Yes the 70 Grill insert is hard to find. The 70 insert has if I remember correct on my truck 6 rows of 8 hroizontal lines in it. From my research the 70 insert hasent ben remanufactured by any company. If you go to a dealer and order a 70 insert you will get the 69 as a replacement. Look at swapmeats also, you can sometimes find one there. Dont rule out wrecking yords, The one near me has three is great shape but the old man there wont sell them in hopes he will restore the trucks. Keep rocking on the 70, It is the coolest one of all.

[70c10]

Also every 69' I have seen have the black headlight bezels where all the 70's I have seen have the chrome ones. I have no clue if that is preference or factory. Also the 69 inner grilles seem to always have the silver painted grid where the 70's seem to have plain black. Again don't know if that's factory or not.

[67ChevyRedneck]

I think the only difference is that one of the years, not sure which, had vertical and horizontal "bars" and the other year was horizontal only, but there was obviously very thin plastic "bars" on the backside to hold it together. I'm pretty sure they are completely interchangeable.

[texnician01]

I have a 69 with a 70 grille. they are almost the same. they are interchangable physicaly. They both have the same pattern of vertical and horizontal slats in the grille(I think). the difference comes on the 70 grille they raised the hoizontal slats about 1/8 inch and painted them silver so they stick out. if you were to lightly sand the paint off or whatever they would look the same. This is my truck with 70 grille. if i sanded the paint off it would look like a 69, unless you got real close and knew what to look for.

Nathan

[70c10]

Thats the setup (silver inner and black bezels) I always see on a 69'.

[kingsolver72]

I believe Palf79step is correct.

[robert wright]

The grille insert that texnician posted is what I've seen for a 70--raised with a painted silver facia. I've found one in a junkyard, but wonder if it's really worth changing out. How rare are these? Raise the value of a 70?

[70 shorty]

Do a search under my posts, I posted a question saying I couldn't tell the difference btwn the 2, there are some better pictures than shown here.

[Palf70Step]

Far as the headlight bezels for 69/70, I am told the only way they came chrome instead of painted is is you went aftermarket. I have not see anyone offer anything but the chrome now days for replacements. If you don't have a decent stock set, you need to strip the chrome and paint the bezels to be original.
Her are some better grill shots I have to show the difference. Top on is a 69, lower one a 70.

[3 on the tree]

I think my first reply got lost. Anyhow, I just went out and looked at my 72,000 mile 70 Blazer. The bezels are/were black before the sun got to them. The inner grille pattern is: 6 rows of 4 chrome(?) slats above the center bar and the same below the center bar. The chrome/silver slat is raised about 1/8 inch, just like someone else said. My slats are definately not painted, more like old chrome on plastic.

[texnician01]

It may be chrome on the horizontal slats?? mine looks like silver paint after 30 years of wear. But there is something on there to accent them. If someone gets a close up of both grilles you will find that they both have the same pattern of horizontal and vertical bars just that the 70 grilles were accented. in far off shots you only see the accents that is what was intended. If you compare the first pic that Palf70step posted he says it is a 70, you can see ALL the slats. looks just like the pic that he later posted of a closeup 69 grille on that brown truck. that little bit of accent just makes it all look different. if you look real close at the first pic you can see faintly the painted/chromed slats.

Nathan

[kingsolver72]

I thought I seen somewhere,a side by side and there was a very different pattern between the two.

[67ChevyRedneck]

There is, Classic trucks magazine did an article a couple years back on identifying 67-72 trucks, with pictures. There is a very noticable difference between the two. Identifying 67-72 Click on the drawing in the upper right hand corner and you can see that a 69 has vertical and horizontal bars, like an egg-crate style. The 70 has thick horizontal slats. They have thin vertical bars behind them just to hold it together. There is definately a visual difference.

[67ChevyRedneck]

More information on these trucks

[kingsolver72]

67ChevyRedneck,good job on articulating the differences in the two grilles.

[robert wright]

Thanks guys. As usual this board has more information available than the factory. I'm going to look at that 70 grille again to see if it's worthwhile.

[Martin64]

My '70 has a blue bowtie on the hood and I noticed a '69 without a bowtie on the hood. Is this consistant?

[robert wright]

Originally Posted by Martin64

My '70 has a blue bowtie on the hood and I noticed a '69 without a bowtie on the hood. Is this consistant?

The 69/70 hoods came with the blue bowtie bolted through 2 holes in the hood. The 71/72 moved the bowtie to the grille. Besides the 2 holes, the hoods are the same (as far as I can tell). We removed the bowtie and welded up the holes on our 70 (personal preference). Most new replacements come without the holes...you drill them yourself.

GMC hoods are probably different also. I've got to check my 69 (under snow right now) but since the "G M C" lettering is on the hood there may be more holes than for the bowtie.

[Blue_71]

from my experience, 69 and 70 grills are identical except for the little 1 inch indentions in the 70 grill... i put a 70 inner in my 69 and cut a peice out of the 69 to repair the 70... you cant tell its been fixed unless you look very close

[64fleetside]

There is also a small difference in the outer grilles, look closely at Palf70's pics. The painted /stamped black areas around the park lites are slightly diff. GM sold 70 & 69 replacement grilles (inners & outers) as the same, for a while you could buy only the 70 model, then they sold 69 style. Same box, same part #, same for 69 or 70, even tho they were actually different, sorta like the black outside line on 71-72 outer grilles. Brian

[TugOwar]

Originally Posted by robert wright

GMC hoods are probably different also. I've got to check my 69 (under snow right now) but since the "G M C" lettering is on the hood there may be more holes than for the bowtie.

Can't speak for other year models but my 68 GMC had (now filled/personal choice) the letters on the hood. Three seperate letters w/ two holes for each letter.

[Blue_71]

the area on mine were chromed when i got the 70 inner.. i also have noticed the thing about around the park lamps, mine was black on a lil section beside each lamp on the 69 grill before i SOSd it off... the 70 grill i have though has black lines going all the way to the headlight bezels

pic 1 shows the 70 grill when it was on my k20... notice the black lines go all the way to the headlight bezels beside the parklamps, and the 6 black spots (what i called indentions) in the 70 inner when it was still in that grill

you can see the indention beside the parklamp in pic 2 where it used to be black before i took all the black off.. also in pic two, directly above the "R" is a glued in peice of 69 inner, on the otherwise 1970 inner.. i painted it solid gloss black before putting it in though, so you cant tell its a 1970 inner.

[Longhorn Man]

all 69/70 trucks had black headlight bezels. Black primer is pretty much a dead on match from what I've seen.
All 69/70 trucks had the blue bow tie on the hood...well, the chevy ones did anyways.