How to Install Grille Trim and Grille Extensions
When you see a 1969 Chevelle coming towards you, the first thing you see is the blue Chevy bowtie in the grille or the awesome SS 396 emblem. The grille on these cars is a sight to see, but unfortunately 51 years has gone by and we all know that time is not kind to everything. Even though time is sometimes not in our favor, almost anything can be fixed.
A little bit of a back story to my Chevelle is when I purchased it and brought it home. Underneath the boxes of extra parts were the door panels, window trim, and the grill. You can guess the condition of these items, if not, "destroyed" may be an appropriate word for these items. I could salvage some of it, such as a couple of the emblems, but the outer grille extension was broken and the trim was dented and completely unrepairable.
Luckily, Speedway Motors has me covered with all my muscle car restoration part needs. I purchased part numbers 92612382, 92612381 and 92612375. These items consist of the outer grille extensions themselves and the LH and RH trims to fit with them. The quality on these items is sharp to say the least. The trim is spotless and will perfectly replace any trim that was damaged over time.
When I got everything home, I could not wait to get to start putting it all together. The trim will come with two 5/16-inch nuts that will screw on the extension. Another benefit to the grille extensions is that the hole is elongated so you can adjust the trim to fit perfect around the corner of the extension. I am a very picky person when it comes to these kind of things, and I hate seeing when there is space between trim and the part itself. In my opinion it should be firmly butted up to the part itself.
I personally used a deep well 8mm socket to install the trim onto the one extension (8mm and 5/16 are roughly the same and I only had a deep socket in metric). One thing I cannot stress enough when reinstalling or adding new parts, is when it comes to trim installation or installing products on plastic, DO NOT over tighten the nut on the bolt or stud. One of the worst things you can possibly do is install it and crank down on it like you are tightening a wheel and damage the plastic.
It's not a good feeling when someone over tightens something like this and you hear the worst, the sound of plastic cracking and breaking. Next thing you know you are right back to square one and asking yourself why you did that. Properly installing these outer extensions will look just as good, if not better, as the day it came off of the showroom floor. And once you have these installed in the front of the car, everyone will be checking it out.
