1969 Barracuda 340 Formula S - Sprucing Up and Finishing Touches
I purchased a complete grille replacement kit from Layson's and the quality was terrible. To be fair, there is a warning on Layson's website that this item has fit issues and some modifications will be required. At first glance, everything looked good but once I got into installation I discovered there are multiple quality and design problems with these repops. I tried for months to figure out how to make them work. I looked at drilling-cutting-grinding here and there and finally what killed it was when I realized that the shape of plastic bezel is completely wrong.
The egg crate grill comes in silver so I will have to paint it black for my Formula S.
The metal-body-nose area where the grille inserts install on the Cuda is slightly angled forward so the plastic bezel has a tilt that you can see in the above photo. This is the driver-side grille. This was the major deal-breaker that made me give up and I decided to restore the original grille instead. Just trying to insert one of these new grilles was impossible because they hit up against the headlight bracket. I tried bending and reshaping the plastic with a heat gun and some heavy weights but it would always spring back instantly to its original shape. There were also multiple other quality and fit issues that I probably could have overcome but this particular problem was too much.
I purchased a complete grille replacement kit from Layson's and the quality was terrible. To be fair, there is a warning on Layson's website that this item has fit issues and some modifications will be required. At first glance, everything looked good but once I got into installation I discovered there are multiple quality and design problems with these repops. I tried for months to figure out how to make them work. I looked at drilling-cutting-grinding here and there and finally what killed it was when I realized that the shape of plastic bezel is completely wrong.
The egg crate grill comes in silver so I will have to paint it black for my Formula S.
The metal-body-nose area where the grille inserts install on the Cuda is slightly angled forward so the plastic bezel has a tilt that you can see in the above photo. This is the driver-side grille. This was the major deal-breaker that made me give up and I decided to restore the original grille instead. Just trying to insert one of these new grilles was impossible because they hit up against the headlight bracket. I tried bending and reshaping the plastic with a heat gun and some heavy weights but it would always spring back instantly to its original shape. There were also multiple other quality and fit issues that I probably could have overcome but this particular problem was too much.