69 barracuda grille surrounds repop
Well heres the verdict. The diecast grille surrounds will work with OEM plastics. I have a lot of experience making "chicken salad out of chicken ****" though, so i made them work. The chrome is very nice on these. no defects in the chrome. Very happy with this part of the surrounds. The wonky stud however is still in the RH surround. Not a problem for me, as i will just add a sheetmetal tab to the header panel. Rest of the grille in the pic needs restoration work. I am just getting it all together to put in storage. Wanted to fit these so i could sleep at night knowing they fit or return em if they didnt, and wouldent be chasing my tail later on.
So heres the rundown if you want to use these.
1. locating pins for steel turn signal brackets on bottom side are off. Like way off ! I welded up the holes on the brackets, ground em flat and moved them. You could just grind the locating pins off and leave em that way too.
2. RH surround upper inboard mounting stud is on wrong side of locating pin. I drilled the plastic for the pin, and will locate sheetmetal tab on the header panel for the new location.
3. locating pins on the inboard and outboard sides do not line up at all with the holes in the plastic. I radiused the plastic letting them just "float" where they are at. These radiuses cannot be seen from the front side, and takes some stresses out of the plastic.
4. Plastic did not fit well inside the trim at upper inboard end on the RH surround. A fair amount of grinding on the plastic face side made it fit better inside the surround, and grinding on the back side of the plastic where it fits against the car body was required in this area as well. You can see that grinding on the mating flange of the plastic in pic #4.
5. Plastic did not fit well under LH trim at outboard and inboard ends requiring some grinding of the plastic to get it to tuck into the diecast surround.
The plastics that i am using i have repaired, and were pretty broken up when i rebuilt them. This may have been part of some of these problems but not all of them. Locating pins in the wrong place, and a mounting stud in the wrong place is not an issue with repaired grille plastics.
My consensus is these will work if your patient with filing and fitting to get them to work, and If like solitare its the only game in town. However If you have really good condition originals keep them, and get em rechromed, or if your car is a concours resto best to keep your originals and reuse.
This all being said, I am overall happy with the results. However even at a discounted price, these shouldent be this high in price if your acting as the prototyper, and have to go through this much trouble to make them work.
I would also recommend making up good ground wires from the turn signal mounting brackets to the radiator support. Reason being is they are originally attached to the surrounds with the diecast peened over them like a rivet. The surrounds studs carry the ground to the body. After having to clearance the brackets to fit you will likely not get a decent ground path for the lights to work. I will run ring terminals off the studs on the backs of the lights to the headlight ground holes on the rad support.
I contacted PG classic and explained that i made these work for my application, but they arent correct. Lots of problems they shouldent have. They asked me to send pix of the issues i was having, said nobody ever contacted them about this so they were not aware. I told them i can make stuff work, but shouldent have to, and that other people will just send these back.
Hope this helps some of you out.
Matt
Well heres the verdict. The diecast grille surrounds will work with OEM plastics. I have a lot of experience making "chicken salad out of chicken ****" though, so i made them work. The chrome is very nice on these. no defects in the chrome. Very happy with this part of the surrounds. The wonky stud however is still in the RH surround. Not a problem for me, as i will just add a sheetmetal tab to the header panel. Rest of the grille in the pic needs restoration work. I am just getting it all together to put in storage. Wanted to fit these so i could sleep at night knowing they fit or return em if they didnt, and wouldent be chasing my tail later on.
So heres the rundown if you want to use these.
1. locating pins for steel turn signal brackets on bottom side are off. Like way off ! I welded up the holes on the brackets, ground em flat and moved them. You could just grind the locating pins off and leave em that way too.
2. RH surround upper inboard mounting stud is on wrong side of locating pin. I drilled the plastic for the pin, and will locate sheetmetal tab on the header panel for the new location.
3. locating pins on the inboard and outboard sides do not line up at all with the holes in the plastic. I radiused the plastic letting them just "float" where they are at. These radiuses cannot be seen from the front side, and takes some stresses out of the plastic.
4. Plastic did not fit well inside the trim at upper inboard end on the RH surround. A fair amount of grinding on the plastic face side made it fit better inside the surround, and grinding on the back side of the plastic where it fits against the car body was required in this area as well. You can see that grinding on the mating flange of the plastic in pic #4.
5. Plastic did not fit well under LH trim at outboard and inboard ends requiring some grinding of the plastic to get it to tuck into the diecast surround.
The plastics that i am using i have repaired, and were pretty broken up when i rebuilt them. This may have been part of some of these problems but not all of them. Locating pins in the wrong place, and a mounting stud in the wrong place is not an issue with repaired grille plastics.
My consensus is these will work if your patient with filing and fitting to get them to work, and If like solitare its the only game in town. However If you have really good condition originals keep them, and get em rechromed, or if your car is a concours resto best to keep your originals and reuse.
This all being said, I am overall happy with the results. However even at a discounted price, these shouldent be this high in price if your acting as the prototyper, and have to go through this much trouble to make them work.
I would also recommend making up good ground wires from the turn signal mounting brackets to the radiator support. Reason being is they are originally attached to the surrounds with the diecast peened over them like a rivet. The surrounds studs carry the ground to the body. After having to clearance the brackets to fit you will likely not get a decent ground path for the lights to work. I will run ring terminals off the studs on the backs of the lights to the headlight ground holes on the rad support.
I contacted PG classic and explained that i made these work for my application, but they arent correct. Lots of problems they shouldent have. They asked me to send pix of the issues i was having, said nobody ever contacted them about this so they were not aware. I told them i can make stuff work, but shouldent have to, and that other people will just send these back.
Hope this helps some of you out.
Matt