The design intent was that the body color is continued through the grille. It's the same design intent, but more obvious on the '67-'69 Barracudas. A lot of first gen Barracuda center grilles don't look right painted in body color, because they are dented and more importantly the top of the grille center isn't flush with the hood and therefor interrupting the "flow". Unfortunately the grille centers are always broken, hard to repair and impossible to find in good condition. I've been thinking about trying to find a NOS grille (last one I saw was $800) to have it 3d scanned and then 3d printed.
