1968 Barracuda Grille Surrounds

[dab68]

Hello, does anybody know how/where can get the studs replaced in my 1968 Barracuda grille surrounds? Most of mine broke off when I removed them. My boys and I are building a driver, so I don't need the Alltrim type resto. Please let me know.
Thanks.

 

[RedFish]

You can replace every one of them with cadmium plates 'T' bolts. You'll need to drill out and replace all the pop rivets. Remove the factories welded studs.
The little square heads studs floating in 67 fish inner grille parts are a bigger problem. Even those can be replaced.

If you had a 67 and took either of the narrow moldings off the trunk lid, you would find that fasteners slide right into the front outer surrounds

 

[famous bob]

You can replace every one of them with cadmium plates 'T' bolts. You'll need to drill out and replace all the pop rivets. Remove the factories welded studs.
The little square heads studs floating in 67 fish inner grille parts are a bigger problem. Even those can be replaced.

don`t remember what bolt (screws) I used, but I ground the heads down to where I just could use a phillips on them and slid them in.

 

[jimharvard]

dab68

when i restored my 68 fastback s most of the bolts twisted off when i took the grills out. i cleaned each of the outer grill assemblies on the bench drilling and replacing any of the pop rivets that were bad/rusty. for the pop rivets, i used 1/8 "short" alluminum rivets. they seem to match the OEM better. for the twisted off bolts in the outer part of the grill, i ground off and/or drilled out the broken stud. then i went to a local advance auto parts store and bought small oval shapped chrome clips. these are the ones that are usually green or black and have a needle sized pin sticking out on one side so the clip can snap into the chrome moulding. i then cut the this needle pin off of the clip and further trimmed it with metal shears so the clip would fit into the small area of the grill chrome surround. these worked very well when i put the grill back in the car and because of their shape, will not turn when you are tightening the nut up on the clip.

if you want to take some extra time, clean and repaint the black metal support bars on your grill surrounds while you have them on the bench. these grill assemblies are pretty involved manufacturing - nothing produced today even comes close to how well the old grills were put together 45 years ago. but if you take your time, you can restore these grills to look almost NOS. like famous bob noted, there are a couple of options for finding replacement parts that will work.

 

[dab68]

Thanks Guys. I appreciate all of the input! I got it.