Hi All,
I’m pulling my hair out, trying to install grill brackets on my 69, need to ask for some help.

Background that may be pertinent- this car is a very early 69, #803 off the line in early Sept 68. The PO started restoring the car in Jan 1990 (that’s right, 30 years...), and in 2002 had a NOS GM front body installed on it (no wreck, the original, which I have, was a poorly modified, flared out mess). They did an excellent job installing the new body, but since the resto was never finished, none of the lower valance holes for the grill brackets were drilled. Hence, I have to locate by hand.. To make matters worse, none of the original grill brackets came with the car, so I bought new 69 inners and outers from Willcox. They got here this week, and that’s when the fun started..

To my questions- My headlight braces do have original holes in them for the top of the inner brace, and the AIM clearly shows that the inner brackets should mount to the outside of the headlight brace. However, the bracket that I got doesn’t line up ( see pic) due to interference with the center grill mounting tab.




I can modify the brackets by cutting clearance between the two tabs, but can’t believe that I need to modify brand new parts, and am worried about seriously weakening the bracket. What am I missing?


To add confusion, it appears that I have one ‘68-style bracket on the RH upper. Was there an early / late split on the 69’s? Should I be buying 68 brackets?

Sorry for the long post, any input would be appreciated, I’m about a step away from throwing parts...

Thanks All

 

This may help you a little. I have a Sept 68 build - #2180 I think. All of my grill brackets were 68 brackets. I was pulling my hair out using the 69 AIM until a friend loaned me his 68 AIM - then it all made sense. Do you have access to a 68 AIM?

To add to the confusion - it sounds like you have a late front clip on and early body.

PM sent

 

You should have 68' inner and outer brackets. They are difficult to find and costly. I have an extra pair of inner brackets, so
you can pm me if interested. They are also recently being reproduced, but cost even more than good originals.
Joe

 

Thanks for getting back to me, guys. Now that I know I’m looking for 68 brackets, I went back through my pile of parts, and actually found the two center grill brackets, and the LH lower inner bracket. I think I can work around the missing outer brackets, but I am going to need the RH lower inner.




Joe, I’ll send you a PM and see if we can work a deal. Thanks again for reaching out, my blood pressure is slowly going back down...

 

Good.
The center brackets are made up of 2 pieces that connect together with a screw and U nut. The out brackets are a single piece
for the upper outer and a single piece for the lower outer.
Paragon has all the 68 brackets now and they are priced much better than I remember. If you are missing some of the outer
brackets then I would look at their website.
I wish they had them when I purchased mine.
Joe