[BN]

Is there a difference in the grille and/or grille surround color of the GTO vs the Lemans. PB you might know this first hand?

[BN]

Is there a difference in the grille and/or grille surround color of the GTO vs the Lemans. PB you might know this first hand?

[Lloyd-TX]

They are identical, Bill.

[BN]

Silver surrounds & black eggcrates, right?

[Lloyd-TX]

Correct-o, Bill!

Have a great weekend!

[BN]

You too,,,and thanx

[Jack Peters]

What??????
You gotta be nuts.......
That is totally wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You are kidding, aren't you????
Lloyd, where are you comming from on this one????
You mean it's Friday all ready????
What happened to the rest of the week????

Gotcha, on a late April's Fool Joke!!!!

[ed boersma]

For what it's worth, I have a '72 GTO that I purchased new, has black eggcrates. Also have the eggcrates from a '72 Lemans Endura that I boned out in '78; they were untouched and are silver. If it's really important to someone, I can take pictures.

[Lloyd-TX]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by ed boersma:
For what it's worth, I have a '72 GTO that I purchased new, has black eggcrates. Also have the eggcrates from a '72 Lemans Endura that I boned out in '78; they were untouched and are silver. If it's really important to someone, I can take pictures. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Dunno what to say about your findings.

I just rechecked by Pontiac MPC, and as I recalled, it shows identical eggcrates and grill shells for ALL 1972 T41 cars, GTO or LeMans.

On the other hand - 1971 T41 LeMans, GTO's and Judges all has unique grilles.

[gto4door]

Lloyd,
In '72, the Gto and/or T41 Lemans grilles had silver surrounds and a gunmetal- dark grayish eggcrate.

[PB]

Okay, this has been for debate too. Blackened out or not? I think that GTO was Black grates.

My dad bought our 72 lemans w/endura and I don't ever remember that those grates were black, I remember they were bare alumnium. Like ed said.

either way, the grill surround is the same as Lloyd stated, the color is Argent silver. You can get the correct color at your local auto parts store. Duplicolor...car and van paint....it's 229 silver.

Personally, I like the blacked out grate look. But I would say GTO was black and the lemans w/endura was left unpainted...just a guess based on the many cars I've seen over the years....T41 optioned lemans...none of them looked like they were painted.

[BN]

I thought I read at one time that GTO's had black eggcrate and Lemans had dark gray, that's why I asked. I'm trying to turn my fake GTO convert back into a Lemans.

Pat great timing on your post as I'm headed out to buy paint as soon as I'm done here. I'll be getting the 229 silver,,,Thanks for the info

[gto4door]

BN,
I've read that too about the black grilles. I would say that is debatable. Whatever you do, Please don't dark jet black gloss the eggrates. I've seen so many restored cars over the years with heavy layered dark black gloss eggcrates. GTO's never came that way.

To get the proper look for the eggcrates, I recommend just misting over the cleaned,bare metal eggcrates with a semi-gloss black with a pinch of silver and flattener mixed into the black paint to get that gunmetal dark grayish near black finished look.

[Lloyd-TX]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by gto4door:
Lloyd,
In '72, the Gto and/or T41 Lemans grilles had silver surrounds and a gunmetal- dark grayish eggcrate. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Gotcha.

What I meant to say was that there were no differences between the T41 LeMans and GTO grilles.

[Lloyd-TX]

Well now, I guess Pat and Bill have other information.

Hmmmmmmmmmmm . . .

[PB]

Here is a picture of a set I redone, one with black, one without.

[BN]

Was the one on the left blasted or like that from new?

[PB]

I don't think that one has been touched. I have not blasted it anyway. Glad I could be of help BN.

Just tape off those chrome edges, give it a couple coats of paint, then clear it. I sand down the pits with some metal sandpaper. That usually takes them down pretty good. The more severe pits tend to show more, but if they aren't pitted too bad, they come out real nice.

Oh yeah, that 229 silver is also the correct argent silver for the honeycomb wheels and the spokes in the Ralley II's.

Good luck and have a good weekend all...

Pat

[gto4door]

PB,
Nice work on the grille surrounds. I bought my '72 GTO new. The egg crate was not that black and shiny when new. Over time the eggcrate faded and looked like the one on the left. Personally, on a restored car I would go with the way your left grille looks. It is more natural and not have that over restored look.

[PB]

Thanks GTO4,

Here is a pic of my GTO and my vert. The GTO has blackened out grill, and the vert does not. I thought the pic was neat since they are side by side and can see the difference.