Cant really describe it any differently. I noticed that there is a little bit of a space between the top of the grille at the center and the hood line. The ends by the headlight bezels look good. When you look directly at the car at grille level, the center of the grille droops. The car has an NOS core support that I put in (SAE71) and a GM grille, not repro. The car did get into a front end accident at some point in its life. But everything else seems to line up fine. The hood latch support is not bent. I wound up having to shim the bottom hole of the latch support and round out the top hole a bit where it bolts to the core support. Doing that and adjusting the hood bumpers slightly shorter made the gap acceptable. my other question is in regard to the painted piece that goes under the grille. How well is that supposed to line up with the bezels? Mine are a bit off. Has anyone else had this alignment issue? I figured I would adjust this before my new front bumper gets here. The one that was on the car was pushed in at the center and bent out at the ends.
Looks fine when your looking at the car from normal height. Am I being too critical? maybe I just shouldnt have anyone bent down in front of the car
Grille trim screws? It does look like too much of a gap, no idea why? I am getting ready to do the same work on my car soon. Seeing your pictures jogged my memory about trying to round up the proper screws to attach the lower grille trim(painted piece) to the grille... Where did you get the screws and what type are they? Are the screws black? Sorry about hijacking your thread. Thanks for any help. Bert
No problem Bert. I got the screws from Pep Boys. They were in the body hardware section. Brand was "Body-Tite" part number 45880. Dont know if they are correct, but they fit fine and the bumper will cover them anyway
sounds like a core suppport problem. check all the welding alingment holes to see if any are way off. seen a couple that where welded wrong.
Grill Alignment It a little more out then you normaly see but not to bad (the bumper will cover most of that). A couple thing to check would be to see the grill studs and head light bezels are all the way seated. Also remove the painted metal lower grill guard and see the differance there to see if the metal guard strip is bent. The only other thing would be a core support problem. The fun part will be finding a straight front 70 bumper, many bad cores out there that are a problem to fit. If you get a bad one the bumper top edge will be close on to the inside ends of both head light bezels and wide torwards the outside. BTW Excellent color and Super looking GS! :TU: AL.
Thanks Al. The hood latch support is in nice shape with no damage at all. I put the NOS core support in when I got the car. The original one was rusted under the tray and had some accident repair in it. It was also a 71 date code so it had been replaced previously. If you look closely at the picture, you can see I placed some body shims where the bottom of the hood latch support meets the core. Shimming it there brought the center of the grill "up". That in conjunction with lowering the hood bumpers made it less noticeable. The grill is flexed slightly now because of the shims, but its not severe at all. The alignment of the grill piece to the bezels doesnt concern me as much. I realize that were talking about a 36 year old car that was involved in a fender bender. The fit and finish of these cars was even off to some degree when they were new. Thats exactly what the bumper was like that I had on it. It was so close to the grille that I couldnt install the painted metal piece. You could see welding work in the pointed tip and sides from behind. I ordered a rechromed bumper from The Parts Place (gulp). Im a little nervous as to exactly what Im going to get.
Rechrome Bumpers When you get the new bumper from The Parts Place lay it out facing up and take measurments in the head light bezel area at 4 points (L&R) and see how close they are. AL.
Did you put straight edges across the top and bottom of the edges of the grille before you installed it to see if it had experienced any "sag" over time? Remember, this is a xx year old grille---it is not out of the question that over that many years the plastic has slightly sagged, even though never installed on a car. Looks fine to me but maybe I am missing it.
Shimming it at the bottom of the hood latch support brought the center of the grille up to an acceptable level. I used three 1/16" shims. The space between the bottom of the chrome hood molding and the top of the grill is about 3/16". Its as good as its going to get. Its 100% better than it was. My guess is that the front end is a little tweaked from its past accident damage. There is a bit more space between the right frame horn and the core support than there is on the left side. Nothing major. The car lined up fine last time it was on the alignment rack. I can live with it the way it is I'll keep my fingers crossed that the new TPP bumper isnt pushed in at the center like the old one. I really hate old cars sometimes!
Jason, Did you change bushings when you did the core support or reuse originals? I'll take a look next time at Kohl's. How much total gap between hood and fenders at the nose?
The gap is maybe a 1/8th or so on both sides. The hood is even from side to side and all the way back to the cowl. I did re-use the original bushings even thought they were a little beat. In looking at it today a little, the right side core bushing is not centered over the hole on the frame. The left side is. Thats why I think the right frame horn may be a little tweaked. I tried loosening up the core and trying to move the bottom forward. Thinking that might raise the grille a bit. There really isnt any adjustment there. I screwed around with it for a couple of hours trying to figure out what was going on. It so convienient having multiple GS's to compare to :grin: . The only thing that really helped were the three shims on the hood latch support. The top bolt doesnt line up now under the core, but i have no problem drilling a new hole in the core or elongating the hole in the latch support. Right now if I take a level and place it vertically from the tip of the hood chrome to the tip of the grille stainless, its perfectly level. So the grill is coming out as far as it should. The problem may be in the plastic grille too as Patton suggested. I'd like to get your opinion of it next time we're at a cruise night. I honestly think its as good as its going to get. Or maybe I should just go seek some couseling for my obsessive compulsive disorder.
Al- your Vette looks awesome! :TU: One of my favorite years. Love the Mako Shark styling. Although my classic car insurance broker keeps claiming that real Corvettes have trunks. But he's a 53 Vette guy. Doesnt look like you have too far to go. But I was going to trade that old crummy 70 Buick on a new Kia Sefia :laugh: As much as I love these cars, they can be so damn frustrating sometimes. There are a few gray hairs on my head from them. The rest of them are from the house and the fiance :laugh: Jim...very good! :laugh: :laugh:
Al....I actually had my heart set on a Corvette when I was a teenager. I had one lined up too. There was a doctor up the block from my parents house who drove a 67 coupe everyday. He was the original owner. Old guy who wore those plaid golf pants. I would talk to him and always tell him that I wanted to buy his car. He would always smile. I dont think he took me seriously. One day after school, I got off the bus and saw a brand new Toyota Cressida in his driveway :ball: . I went to his house and he told me that he traded it in. He explained to me that he paid $4000 for it in 67, drove it for almost 20 years and got $8000 for it- double his money. I was so upset. I remember that car like it was yesterday rumbling up my block. Dark green with a saddle interior w/ a 4 speed. Corvette rallyes with whitewall tires. And that throaty sound out of those pipes. I always wondered what happened to that car. Im sure its around someplace.
Jason, when you get that baby done you gotta post some better picture's. That car looks awesome in that color from what I can see.
