1970 Cuda Grille Updated

[plummmp]

Hey guys, I’m in the middle of updating my 1970 Cuda grille. The current one is painted black like the AAR but is the non AAR grille. It has some melt, parking lamps need love, and it’s worn.

Anyways, I’ve painted the new grille dark argent and satin black, the red line and Plymouth emblem is installed, the chrome trim is on. It all looks good.

I’ve ordered the parking lamp mounting hardware and it should arrive soon. I’m now trying to figure out the best and safest way to mount the new grille.

I can’t find clear answers so hoping you awesome folks can advise me appropriately:

1. Do I need to remove the bumper in order to install the grille? It looks like it will wiggle in without removal but I’m curious if it’s worth removing to access lower bolts and have more room to work?

2. Should I install the new parking lamps after the grille is mounted and in place? Or install before putting the new grille in?

3. I plan to test the Holley retrobrights and parking lamps before installing anything. And also use dielectric grease on the grounds and connectors as they have some slightly weathering. Any other electrical considerations?

4. I purchased an all new grille mounting hardware set. From research some of the pieces seem to need slight modification in order to fit well (specifically the black spacer pads need to be thinned down a little for the bolts to reach through - not sure exactly what they’re called). Will verify measurements against the parts in there now when I remove everything.

Anything I’m not thinking of or additional tips to make this go as smooth as possible?

Thanks in advance!

 

[heminut]

1. You do not need to remove the bumper to put the grille in, it will slip in with the bumper in place. I had no problem accessing the lower bolts with the bumper in place and IMHO removing the bumper to gain more access is a waste of time and energy.

2. Put the park lamps in after the grille is installed.

3. You should be good to go there.

4. I had no issues with the fit of the black pads in the hardware set

Put the long upper and lower trim pieces on the grille before installing it. Also, the trim pieces on the headlight buckets have a small lip on the inside that snaps onto the mounting tabs of the headlight buckets. The lips probably go all the way to the ends of the trim pieces and if so the trim will not slip over the stepped down ends of the main grille trim pieces where they overlap. I removed the lips on the headlight bucket trim pieces where they stick out past the headlight bucket so they would slip over the grille trim ends.

 

[plummmp]

Thank you brother!! I am going to attempt the install this weekend then. Will post some before and after for the crew here

 

[heminut]

Take your time and don't rush it. Also don't try to force things, you're dealing with plastic parts! It took me all afternoon to get mine installed.

 

[plummmp]

Take your time and don't rush it. Also don't try to force things, you're dealing with plastic parts! It took me all afternoon to get mine installed.

Might grab a friend to help out then, the paint took a while and I’d hate to scratch something this late into the peoject

 

[heminut]

Might grab a friend to help out then, the paint took a while and I’d hate to scratch something this late into the peoject

You might also put some painter's tape around the painted edges to protect them. I didn't but in hindsight it would have been a good idea.