Charger grilles

chargervert · Sep 2, 2020

I luckily have some decent 70 Charger grilles,two of my 70 Chargers have Daytona nosecones,so grilles are not an issue. My other 3 70 Chargers have nice grilles. My 69 R/T SE sunroof car has a decent grille,and my sons 68 Charger has a nice grille too. So today I decided to see if I had enough parts to put together another 69 Charger grille from the parts I have in the loft. Grille prices for second gen Chargers have gone through the roof these days! when I was leaving Carlisle in 2019,I saw a 68/69 Charger metal grille frame next to a trash can,so I grabbed it and threw it in the truck. so this is the grille frame I am using to build a grille for my other 69 R/T SE. So after I went up in the loft this morning to round up what I had for grille parts,I found more than I thought I would! I found a fair condition center section. It is good except it is missing about a half inch on each side of the bottom,where the center section,bolts to the outer sections. I can probably repair it,since the rest of it is good. Usually 69 Chargers are broken in the center beak section,this one is not. I found two decent headlight doors,the left one needs the stop tab repaired,the right one is mint. I found a drivers side outer grille frame that has one minor crack where it won't be seen,so some epoxy will fix that. Then I found one of the vacuum pod brackets,and I can probably find the other side and the pods,and pod brackets that bolt to the headlight doors if I dig a little deeper. I was pretty happy to find two thirds of a 69 Charger grille in my junkpile up in the loft! winning! The first picture is the parts that I found this morning, the second picture is the complete grille from my sunroof car.

chargervert · Sep 3, 2020

I went up in the loft again to see if I could find a right outer grill surround and I don't have one. I have to call a few friends to see if they might have one. If not then I will post and in the parts wanted section.

chargervert · Sep 3, 2020

I just checked classic industries and they get $219.00 for the right outer grill surround. Has anyone bought one of their grilles,if so how is the quality of them? They also have the 7 piece molding set for $279.00 which is not bad.

chargervert · Sep 17, 2020

Today I repaired the broken stop tab,and installed the R/T emblem on the door. I bought the emblem from a guy on Moparts, it is a nice unpitted original piece, the Charger script that was already on the door has no pitting either. I still have to paint the silver around the outer edges.

chargervert · Sep 24, 2020

I started working on the grille frame today. As I said, I got it for free, it was next to a trash can at Carlisle 2019,I saw it as I was leaving on Sunday afternoon, so I grabbed it and threw it in my truck. Overall it is a decent piece, but it has some surface rust, and the four studs that bolt it to the inner structure of the front fenders were broken off flush with the grille frame. I was going to try to remove the broken swedged in mounting studs from the grille frame, but it is just stamped sheetmetal and it would probably cause damage to the mounting tabs,so I decided to drill through the four broken studs and tap them with a 1/4 20 tap,and screw four new mounting screws threw them. It worked out fine. I will start preparing the frame for etch primer, primer and paint next.

View attachment 1006147

chargervert · Sep 24, 2020

I got the grille frame sanded, etch primed, primed and painted satin black today. I also ran a tap through the grille to fender bracket bolt holes on the lower crossbar and the hood latch bolt holes so reassembly will be easily done.

chargervert · Sep 24, 2020

More pics of the frame in satin black paint.

Kern Dog · Sep 24, 2020

Are you on vacation or retired now?
I'm in between work projects myself...

Richard Cranium · Sep 24, 2020

Looks like you're painting it at work.

RT68440 · Sep 24, 2020

So that's where that went. I leaned it up against that trash can and went to take a leak and when I came back it was gone!

chargervert · Sep 24, 2020

Kern Dog said:
Are you on vacation or retired now?
I'm in between work projects myself...

Still working, I have 3 years and two months 7 days, 3 hours ,15 minutes and 27 seconds left to work before I retire, not that I am counting it.

chargervert · Sep 24, 2020

Richard Cranium said:
Looks like you're painting it at work.

Who me?

chargervert · Sep 24, 2020

RT68440 said:
So that's where that went. I leaned it up against that trash can and went to take a leak and when I came back it was gone!

My blonde wife left an aluminum step ladder out at the curb to show the city workers the spot on the street that needed to be patched, it was gone the next time she went outside! The moral of the story is don't leave anything you want to keep, where you put the trash!

chargervert · Sep 29, 2020

I went to my friends house yesterday and picked up some parts for the grille. I got a fair condition right outer grille surround, and the bottom section of a crashed 69 grille to cut the ends off to fix my grille center. I cut the pieces to fit from the crashed grille, and used JB weld Plastic parts bonder to glue them together. It worked well.

green440duster · Sep 30, 2020

chargervert said:
I went to my friends house yesterday and picked up some parts for the grille. I got a fair condition right outer grille surround, and the bottom section of a crashed 69 grille to cut the ends off to fix my grille center. I cut the pieces to fit from the crashed grille, and used JB weld Plastic parts bonder to glue them together. It worked well. View attachment 1008256 View attachment 1008257 View attachment 1008258 View attachment 1008260

Another good product that I have used on my 68 Grill is Plastex it not only welds cracks together it fills and you can mold parts out of it.

chargervert · Sep 30, 2020

Thanks, I will check the Plastex out. I got all the cracks bonded on the Charger grille today. Now I am sanding them down. I am hoping to get some paint on it tomorrow if possible.

chargervert · Sep 30, 2020

Well considering how the bottom corners of the center section of the grille were broken off completely where the outer surrounds bolt on, I am very happy with the repair results and how the grille fits to grille surrounds. They are not bolted together yet,just placed next to each other to check the fitment. The edges are straight and match up nicely to the surrounds.

chargervert · Oct 1, 2020

I did the finesse sanding,prepped the grille, masked it,and painted the silver on it. It looks good, and tomorrow I will paint the black semi gloss on the part that goes behind the bumper.

chargervert · Oct 1, 2020

Unmasked! It looks pretty good considering it was a bunch of loose parts up in my loft.

chargervert · Oct 1, 2020

I reassembled the grille and it looks sweet! I will order the grille trim 7 piece set next week and then install it in the frame!

Charger grilles

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Life is full of turns. Build your car to handle.

FBBO Gold Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Similar threads