You guys are great. 69 SS X55 lemans blue. My current grill is black. Has it been painted? I see grills for sell but must say silver. Want to make sure I get the right color. Also would my rockers be painted black? Thanks for all the help.
Dave X55 in Iowa

All 69 non RS Super Sports, except Tuxedo Black ones, had a grille with a black center section and body colored outer areas. Base cars, and Z28's and Tuxedo Black Cars had a grille with a silver center section and body colored outer areas.

All RS's, except Black ones, had grilles with a black center section.

All black cars had a silver grille, both Base, RS and SS cars.
CRG Grille Color Link (http://www.camaros.org/exterior.shtml#1969Grille)

Original Grilles were cast in in either silver or black plastic, they are not painted, but at some point the silver grilles were discontinued and only the black ones remained.

that is partially incorrect regarding the Z/28

"Base cars, and Z28's and Tuxedo Black Cars had a grille with a silver center section and body colored outer areas."

Z28's (69) had a BLACK grille when the Z28 stripe was black

otoh, if they had a white stripe, I believe they received a silver grille center

take a look at the factory sales brochure ...

or any of the factory ads ...

here is a FACTORY press release photo (was also used in the early version of the 69 Camaro sales brochure, the later version was a touched up rendetion of the same photo showing the cowl hood). Yes it is an early version, as it has the narrow rear spoiler, correct for the early 69 cars

http://members.roadfly.com/rohns/69camaroz.jpg

In answer to Dave's question, it is correct for your car (a LeMans blue SS) to have the black center grill and black rockers.

What is annoying to see is a 69 without the outer section of the grill painted body color.

Here is an example, wrong:
http://members.roadfly.com/rohns/nonrswrong.jpg

Here is an example, correct coloring (where the paint should be on the non rs grille): http://members.roadfly.com/rohns/right.JPG

[ 05-16-2004, 06:21 PM: Message edited by: al8apexer ]

You might want to look closely at the way the stripes are laid out on the trunk of that "official" GM photo before you use it as gospel for anything.

In case no one can figure it out, they are 67/68 style stipes, 69 front and rear stripes are not the same width nor are they spaced apart the same distance as the front stripes. GM advertising probably didn't know where Norwood or LA were, let alone anything about the details of the car they were trying to sell.

Heres the same car (in color with a driver)

http://www.camaro-untoldsecrets.com/images/gif/1969_h2.gif

Now it's mostly fixed by editing the picture. Notice how the camaro trunk emblem is still sitting in the middle of the stripe.
http://www.camaro-untoldsecrets.com/images/gif/1969_h3.gif

I guess Z28's never had 302 emblems on the cowl hood either.

http://www.camaro-untoldsecrets.com/images/gif/1969_h6.gif

[ 05-16-2004, 05:35 PM: Message edited by: Mark C ]

Originally posted by al8apexer:
that is soooo wrong regarding the Z/28

"Base cars, and Z28's and Tuxedo Black Cars had a grille with a silver center section and body colored outer areas."

Z28's (69) had a BLACK grille UNLESS the body color was blackNope, not true - NO non-RS '69 Z/28 EVER had anything except an argent silver grille. Period. Ad agencies took lots of airbrushing liberties with photos, and generally had no clue about what was correct.
graemlins/beers.gif

Ad agencies (Campbell Ewald in Chevrolet's case) took pictures of what was given them.

My recollection is that the grille color was directly related to the stripe color

ie:
black stripes = black grille center
white stripes = silver grille center

or is it:
light interior = light stripe
dark interior=dark stripe

check all the survivors, I'm fairly certain that is correct

I guess my 1969 issued gm parts book is wrong then

[ 05-19-2004, 02:44 PM: Message edited by: al8apexer ]

How is your 69 parts book wrong? There were originally 2 non RS grilles in the book. 1 was silver, 1 was black. The GM part numbers were 3957062 (black - non RS) and 3957044 (silver - non RS).

The only place in the AIM that I can find a list of non RS grilles vs engine sizes is under RPO CE1 pg A1. It lists 3957062 with engines L48, L34, L35, and L78 (in other words SS's), and it lists 3957044 as exc. L48, L34, L35 and L78 (in otherwords everything else) of course this doesn't take into account the tuxedo black exemption.

Original road test pics show that it didn't depend on the stripe color. smile.gif

Z/28 grille color wasn't related to stripe color in any way, shape, or form; non-RS '69 Z/28's ALL had silver-center grilles, with the outer perimeter painted to match body color - exactly the same as base cars except for the added Z/28 emblem.
graemlins/beers.gif