[gto4door]

PB,
That is a beautiful picture and two very nice cars you have. There are always three items '72 owners alway miss regarding the restoration of their '72. These are 1). The color of the grilles; 2) the color of the hood scoop inserts (I'm talking about the grille w/vertical slats embeded into the scoop, not the flat part that Pontiac paints black on the '71 Judge) and; 3). the color of the front fender air extractor grilles. The latter two should be black, not body color. Since this forum is for educational purposes. I would like to raise the bar a little bit regarding the grilles. In the next few posting I am going to send in time period photos of GTO's. Again the grilles were never as black as your blue 72. Keep in mind age of the photo and exposure can distort what we see. Also, my age is starting to distort. LOL

[gto4door]

Early prototype. Check out the 455 emblem. As "nerdy" as the car looks with the deluxe hubcaps, I am going to admit my GTO came with those hubcaps too.

[gto4door]

Black & White photo

[PB]

Great pics GTO4door,

Yes, I know about the "big 3" you are talking about. I cringe everytime I see those vertical bars painted body color Not many know about that, infact, I posted that as one of my pet peeves on a "pet peeve" thread I started a while back. Even helped out a guy who didn't know that.

So I'd like to see some pics of your car GTO4door... got any vintage ones of it that show the grills? Love to see them if you do. Don't run into too many original owners of cars. So the grills were black in your GTO when it was new then, right? Just not as dark?

I see in the previous picture that 72 has a wind chin underneat the front, like the 70's. Did your 72 come with one of those??? Because I remember having one on our 72 T41 car growing up. I've told some of my buddies that, but they aren't buying it. In fact, I remember it being broken up when changing the oil in high school. I haven't gotten a clear answer on whether these cars had the chin thinggy or not. Another 72 item up for debate.

[BN]

GTO4rd, Do not like the glossy look either. Just need to figure out how to get the bare look. Not sure if they could stand being media blasting.
Pat, You suggest clear coat after the silver paint on the surrounds?

[PB]

BN,

Yup, I give them a couple of coats of clear once paint is dried.

[gto4door]

Another factory photo.

[gto4door]

Ralph Russo's car. Another original owner 72 GTO.

[gto4door]

PB,
My old '72. The top photo was taken sometime around 1979. The bottom photo was taken sometime around 2000. The grilles have never been painted. The paint on the endura bumper faded around 1975 (I've seen this happen with other '72's). I remember getting the bumper resprayed in 1978 and thinking to myself I should redo the grilles to make the front look really nice. That is why I believe the grilles were originally dark gunmetal to light blackish color, but very lightly sprayed. I never got around to repaint the grilles because after cleaning a few squares I thought it was too much trouble to clean and prep before spraying.
Regarding the chin spoiler. I recall having a plastic deflector under the car, but that broke off after a few years of hitting parking stops. However, the plastic deflector on my car did not look like the one in the pictures, it was more vertical than slanted.

[gto4door]

PB,
I'm still looking for older pictures. This one was taken in 1978. Remember, earlier I wrote the car came with hubcaps. By 1978, I was running slotted dish mags (Starky & Hutch look).

[gto4door]

PB
Regarding the color of the grilles. I'm stumped! It's been too long since 1972. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. If I Were points judging your car, I would probably knock off 1 pt for your repainted black grilles. However, there are other judges that would knock pts if you left it unpainted and natural. Just goes to show you car show judges really don't know what they are doing either.
Do you guys want to talk about why the back of your rearview mirror is chrome and mine is black? I really don't know why, I've seen both. Or do you want to talk about how some people spend alot of time detailing their engine compartment and then put on an aluminum silver color preheat hose rather than the original black paper type preheat hose. Isn't this a great hobby?

[PB]

Lol, GTO4door,

Heck, lets talk about em all... Yes, a great hobby indeed. Thanks for the great pics of your car!

Yes, as far as the front air defector....That is the same as I recall on our 72. Glad someone else recalls that, I've talked to many over the years who don't recall or didn't have it. You're the first to verify that for me...glad I wasn't going out of my mind

Anyway, on the rearview mirror thing, From what I understand from guys here, early 72 cars got lots of 71 items on their cars. My car is case in point. Build date was 8/71, a very early production car and it has 140MPH speedo w/o seatbelt buzzer, 71 seatbelts, rearview mirror with chrome backing instead of black, and a side mirror that was also more of 71 styling. My guess is that early cars got the leftover 71 parts. Since they didn't change the car like they originally wanted because of the strike, I assume that is why they did that. I guess cars built upto December had them that way. We would have to see if others are that way too.

Thanks again for sharing your pics....great cars, and the factory photos, don't have some of those,...but I do now!

If you find more, keep em coming!

Pat

[Jack Peters]

RE: Black vs Chrome RVM. Safety. Black doesn't reflect light.

[CDN2PLS2]

My '72 has the chin spoiler,it's quite deep and narrow,I thought it was an A/C thing ?

[Rawbin]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by PB:

I see in the previous picture that 72 has a wind chin underneat the front, like the 70's. Did your 72 come with one of those??? Because I remember having one on our 72 T41 car growing up. I've told some of my buddies that, but they aren't buying it. In fact, I remember it being broken up when changing the oil in high school. I haven't gotten a clear answer on whether these cars had the chin thinggy or not. Another 72 item up for debate. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>


I have owned a 1972 Lemans Sport Convertible with the endura front end option since 1986 and I have one of these small spoiler-like wind chin things that you mentioned in this thread.

Mine is made of hard plastic and was partially broken when I got the car and over the years of owning/restoring the car it always bugged me that no one could ever tell me what it was. Over time, I bought all the factory parts maunals, factory assembly manuals, etc and figured out the answer myself. They list the part not as a spoiler (it sort of looks like the front spolier found on a 1970 GTO with the Judge option) but as a "radiator baffle".

I have never been able to find a replacement for this part and wound up repairing the cracks in mine, but kept it as my car has AC and I thought it may serve some purpose in assisting with the engine radiator cooling, etc.

I can see another 72 with the "radiator baffle" in one of the posted pictures of car for this thread (see gold colored 72 GTO)


My .02

[PB]

Hey, Thanks for sharing your info Robin. I'd love to see some pics of it if you can. I knew I remembered correctly.... . Glad to have some verification. I wonder why we haven't seen any type of repo's on that? Although I do like the 70 chin spoiler look on the 72 too. Thanks, and if anyone can get pics of their original....POST em up!

[CraigGT37]

My 71 with the endura still has the radiator baffle,but it is in about 3 pieces.The parts books list part #9790696 as Baffle 71-72 A/AC it looks like it is the same for non endura also.
Craig

[Jack Peters]

The 455 emblem was used in '72 on production cars.

[gto4door]

I am resurrecting this old thread. Bill Nawrot's (original owner) 1972 GTO does not have blacked out grills. My 1972 GTO (also original family own) did not have blacked out grills.

Link to Bill Nawrot's car.
http://www.oneownercollectorcar.com/...to-bill-nawrot

[threefidee]

Definitely Gray on that car.

Jody