[spectramitch]

I recently obtained a nice 68 chrome lemans bumper with grills and want to put it on my 69 Lemans. Is it a direct swap or are different mounts required? The car has a 69 Gto fiberglass front valance already.

[Half-Inch Stud]

direct swap for non-hideaways.

Probably the most tasteful upgrade in PMD schnazz possibilities

[1965gp]

Yea I am a big fan of the 68 bumper over the 69

[68pongto]

Yeah, I still can't believe somebody at a PMD board/design meeting said "You know what Bob, that new larger monstrosity of a bumper really looks better, I say we go with it!"

[spectramitch]

Looks like Toucan Sam's beak. Seems like back in the 60s and 70s the design teams just had to go ahead and change something every year.

[dataway]

When you think about it, I bet the 69 Lemans had about the most robust front bumper ever put on a GM A body. With some creative bracing to the top of the bumper you could blast through Sheriff Rosko's road blocks all day

[coonhunter70]

The 69 chrome bumper is greatest looking bumper of all time!

[1968GTO421]

Originally Posted by coonhunter70

The 69 chrome bumper is greatest looking bumper of all time!

Really?!

[nogto]

Agree with coonhunter. Pinnacle of 60’s era chrome bumpers.

[spectramitch]

At least there are people out there who might want my 69 beak lol

[coonhunter70]

Originally Posted by nogto

Agree with coonhunter. Pinnacle of 60’s era chrome bumpers.

[Greg Reid]

I'd say that it's about one year beyond the pinnacle...That's about as good as you can make it look. From that angle, which hides the 'droop snoot', it looks almost as good as a '68 bumper.

[north]

Despite owning two 69 LeMans' myself I concur with most that the 68 chrome nose is much more attractive (not surprisingly since the 68 chrome beak is dimensionally the same as the beautiful 68-69 GTO Endura bumper.

I suspect the reason for the 69 restyle (apart from the annual tweaking common then) was that the sales department wanted to make the car look more "substantial". It also mimicked the look of the previous year full-size cars (forgetting that I think the 68 full-size beak was pretty Edsel like fuggly) to give the illusion of the car being bigger.

If you compare a 68 LeMans to say a Cutlass or a Chevelle it is a smaller looking car which is a testament to great styling if you like a sporty look but the average midsize buyer was perhaps preferring a car that looked more like a full-size. One man's gold is another mans garbage.

[nogto]

I do like the 68 bumper and I appreciate the similarity to the beautiful gto endura. However the 69 is just a variation on a successful design theme. It also has the more attractive black and silver grille option not available with the 68 chrome bumper. Here’s a 3/4 profile highlighting that big beautiful nose.

[north]

Is that the factory late production darker grills ?

Both my cars have the more common earlier silver grey grills but I prefer those later ones.

[nogto]

Yes these are the original black grilles. Black plastic all through with painted silver highlights. May 69 build. I also have a light silver and darker grey silver grilles bought before I knew there were 3 different colors. Had a hard time finding a black replacement for one side.

[north]

My cars were built in December and February and both have the early three color (black in headlamp surrounds) silver grilles.

I have one NOS dark grille (forget which side and one decent used one but the condition difference would make them look funny if both went on the same car.

[spectramitch]

I am definitely going to black out the grill and also add yellow high beams. I think those look sweet

[trophy421]

I like 'em both. '69 version gives a little more differentiation from GTO.

[killakev]

My opinion...68 is so much better!