buying new chevy grill? keep eye out for this.....

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LoneCynic

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It was similar for us 88-94 guys too. My original grille was cracked down the right of center, and the "chrome" was flaking off around the edges. I bought a replacement one for $89 I believe, and there was a similar, but not near as bad, "difference" in it. On the original, the bowtie was built into the grille, and recessed a bit into it. On the replacement, there was the backing "shape" with two holes for attaching an emblem. Took me forever it seemed to find the right bowtie to attach to it, but I finally found one brand new that cost me around $50 I believe. New emblem on new grille sticks out more forward, rather than recessed into it, but it still has the "chrome outline shape" all the way around, so it still looks good to me. You 95-98 guys have it rougher with the replacement grilles for sure, that does look much worse than what they did to us guys with the earlier models.

Thanks for the pics and info anyway, always good to know these things for helping others, or things to watch out for so there's no negative surprises.
 

Bob L

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I am not sure but I believe the bow tie is a GM copy righted thing and can't be reproduced without permission and royalties. So if they change it up a little they can sell them. To do an exact reproduction they need permission and have to pay GM. I read somewhere a few years back they were even going after model kit makers for royalties for reproducing scale copy righted nameplates.
A couple years ago I went through this repairing a Merc Marquis. Ford sold the grille with the emblem as one part you could not buy the emblem separately. Aftermarket sold the grille without emblem and if your emblem was damaged you needed to but an OEM grille. I was fixing a taxi and it left the shop without an emblem.
 

vaporlock

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Wow... that looks terrible! I just got a new grille because someone ripped my original one to pieces. It was replaced with a paintable one but I don't know what brand mine is, it looks like the oem one with the whole bit around the emblem tho.

Both the chrome and paintable once listed at the dealership mine comes from was recently changed and now looks like the other once, both from Cross Canada Parts. They are both a few bucks cheaper than the old oem looking ones. The new non-oem looking grilles cost $300 for chrome and $195 for the paintable and the grille emblem $80 (LMC but sold here) and this is why I never buy car parts in Sweden!
 

Tiny Trucker

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I saw these on ebay and figured they were copies, I would prefer an original as my chrome is starting to bubble underneath. Are the early ones still available from dealerships?
 

nickthehick78

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i did end up getting a new grill, its a different design but the boetie was right! took alittle while but the grill grew on me and i actually like it more the oem one now. kinda blingy. just got a new computer and lost all my pics, but my page should have pics of it....
 

Keven

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Tha ks was planning to get one afternarket on internet but yeah ill fix mine untill i find a good one at picknpull!
 
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