Aftermarket 68/69 GTO Chrome Grille Trim Question
 

Has anyone purchased and installed the chrome grille trim for a 68 or 69 GTO from an aftermarket company? I got a 4 piece set from The Parts Place yesterday. 2 for the hideaway doors and 2 for the inner grilles. Just looking at the ones for the inner grilles, it appears there is no way they will fit. The arch does not appear sharp enough for the bend towards the center of the bumper. I was wondering if anyone else had this problem and what they did to solve it. I don't want to go ahead and bend them to the point I can't return them if they don't fit.

I know this post is ancient but I searched high and low on this site for the this same question and this unanswered post is the only thing that came up.

So I bought a pair of The Parts Place grille trim for my '69 GTO from Ames. The Ames site mentioned they arc isn't right but they have success bending them to make them an excellent fit.
So I tried that today and started on the left one. Broke it! "Excellent" yeah right, it broke way before I could bend it to the correct arch. I stuck the right side trim on and it's exactly the same way. I bent it a little to make it fit a little better but it looks like crap. If I try to bend it any more I'm going to break that one too. $80 wasted.

I still have the originals but the chrome plating isn't very good and would need to be rechromed. But I know rechroming pot metal is really expensive.

I do see that Dynacorn makes a set of complete grilles with new trim already installed. However, I can't find a single review on them. Plus everyone is presently out of stock on them.

Advice or comments would be appreciated. If anyone knows about quality of the grilles by Dynacorn, that would be a big help.

Very timely. I was about to pull the trigger myself on the inner grill trim. I guess my originals aren't that bad after all and I can put up with a couple minor pits

Photos of passenger side.
 

Top:

https://i.imgur.com/ETTJdU0.jpg

Bottom:

https://i.imgur.com/c0x2ZgP.jpg

This is as good as I can get without breaking it. I had the trim on the driver side just about like this when I tried to bend it more and then it snapped.

Wow, 11 years someone finally responded to my thread. :pound:

Can't believe 11 years later and they still haven't made a better product. :doh:

Evidently not!
Here's a quote from Ames:

TEST FITTING RESULTS: OVERALL QUALITY LOOKS GOOD. RADIUS ON INSIDE BEND NEEDS TO BE BENT MORE TO FIT THE CONTOUR OF THE GRILLE. WE HAVE DONE THIS ON OUR CARS WITH EXCELLENT RESULTS.

What did you end up doing btw?

If I remember correctly, what I did was use longer screws, then slowly tightened them all around the perimeter. Then when they bottomed out, I used shorter screws, pulling in the trim evenly until it was flush and I was able to use the correct screws.

That wouldn't help with the set that I have. They need to be bent in the middle of the arc where there aren't any screw holes.

So you were able to completely tighten the adjacent screws and you still have an arc not touching the plastic?

Correct.

Sounds like they made the mold worse instead of better over the last 10 years.

About 2 years ago, I was able to get a pair of these to fit nicely. It took time and patients. If I recall correctly, I got it close like in roger1's pictures. Then I kept the screws in the ends, propped the center end out with something, and used my hands, thumbs, palms or combination to massage the trim into the radius.
Very frustrating and time consuming. Oh yes, several BIG BOY words thrown into the mix. But I did manage to get it to fit fairly nicely.
The big $ 64 question is, back in 1969 they could bake these moldings to fit perfectly and put a man on the moon. Why the H@#L cant we get a respectable product today?
OK, I got that off my chest.

You just described exactly what I was doing when it snapped.

Typical reproduction parts. They look good in the Pkg but require a lot of finesse to make them fit the grill.
I put them on my grills right and left side. They don’t fit the inner curve contour of the grill very well. Once installed on the car you look at the grills straight on and very hard to notice that they don’t fit in that area very well.

I'd be interested in being the guinea pig on these if I could return easily if I weren't pleased.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/283744648417

They appear to have the trim already attached. I'm afraid they might be made from unobtainium however.
https://ic.carid.com/dynacorn/items/1528_1.jpg

I just replaced mine a pair I got from Ames a few months ago. I had to adjust the radius just as you guys describe but I didn't have any real issues doing it. I think I may have posted something about it back then. I will have to search.
All l found was this pic- https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...98&postcount=6

Just took a pic of the area in question. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...aa195d0392.jpg

Sent from my moto g stylus (2021) using Tapatalk

Those look great ... did you talk to them real nice or something :)

There is absolutely no way the ones I got could be bent to fit like yours. Either we received different parts or the '68 grilles aren't exactly the same as '69 where the arc is.

Well they definitely took some sweet talking and coaxing but nothing terribly difficult so maybe there is a difference somewhere between what you guys got and what I got.
I did it all by hand, bend, check, rebend, recheck, etc.
All of the plastic is original by the way. In fact, I recall starting a thread asking how these things fit with original parts and got that answer about having to bend the radius. There were no serious complaints about getting it done and that's why I went ahead and bought them.
I would definitely be more than a little upset if they broke! Roger, after seeing the skill you have displayed in your resto thread I cannot imagine that the issues are anything that you are doing wrong. Maybe they are using a cheaper material?