81turbota

Hey All,
It's been a while since my last post, I've been very busy working on my 66 Chevelle.

When I first picked up the truck, I snagged an 89 grille, trim and valence panel while at the yard for $20. I love the way the older front ends look, in my opinion they are a much better match for the older lines of the truck than the big chrome thing that was on it. My chrome grille was flaking and cracked....so it was time to go. I've had plenty of people ask "hey, what year is that? 80? 81?" They are shocked when I say 93.

Anyways, the grille swap was FAR from bolt on. I had to do a lot of Dremel and grinder work. The grille itself needed to have 1.25" trimmed in depth, the valence panel had to be cut in the middle to clear the A/C condenser, and I had to move the headlights down 4.5 cm. I reused the 93 headlight buckets, and only did minimal work to the factory core support which was damaged anyways, so I didn't feel bad doing a little cutting.

I used black steel mesh behind the grille, with door edge molding on the edges to cover up the Dremel mess. I used repro headlight bezels, which needed some additional glue on the turn signal lenses, as they vibrated off I stripped the clear coat off the aluminum trim, hammered out little dings and painted it gloss black.

I think it turned out great. I get lots of compliments on the truck now

BTW- the license plate is a good laugh. I love the truck and think it's tough, but it's always fun to see people laugh at the plate

thrashingcows

That looks really sharp! My personal taste would be to leave the surround aluminum....but regardless it still looks great!

flyboy129

Looks well done. I like it. I'm a fan of the 81-85 and 91.5-93 fronts. Still you did great!

81turbota

Thanks guys.

Thrashing cows- I would have left it the original aluminum, but the particular surround I had was covered in small scratches and dings, it took quite a bit of work to get the dings out, but the scratches would have been a pain. I don't think the black will last long, since I live in the desert and rock chips are frequent. When it gets chipped up I'll be on the lookout for a mint stock surround

mknittle

Looks great.

rrgrassi

I think it looks cool! Where did you get the plastic topped bumper?

ZAAR

Wish I could get a grill to fit! Looks nice and clean good job.

crossy

pretty much standard front bumper on any 91-93 that has the LE package.

thrashingcows

Wow digging through the archives are ya.....

BHD

I am glad you dug this one up.

I've been thinking of building a hot P-pump engine for my Drag-n-Fly. I really didn't want to cut up my pristine IC core support, and I have quite a few non IC units, I plan to use the second gen radiator and air to air.

I wonder if they would fit behind the older grills with this mod?