1965 Grill Question

[Joe L.]

Re: 1965 Grill Question

Been in this business for quite a long time and have never seen or heard of an NOS 65 grille. At one time I was stockpiling 1965 nos parts and had some very rare and unique items. That was in the 70s and early 80s when more items were around. Never even heard of anyone having one! I would really like to hear about an NOS 1965 grille.

Brian------

I totally agree. The 1965 grille was available in SERVICE for such a short time, I would expect that few, if any, NOS examples would have survived. Most of those once so-available were probably used to repair first year crashes and, thus, were "NOS" no more. The few that may have remained available from GM were probably "used up" pretty quickly and I doubt that many, if any, GM dealers ever stocked this part. Most likely, manufacture of these grilles ended with the end of 1965 Corvette production and SERVICE availability ended with the supersession date.

I also agree that if a real NOS grille were to be found, it might cost a pretty good chunk of what a complete 1965 Corvette is worth.

[Joe R.]

Re: 1965 Grill Question

Here's the easiest way to find an NOS 65 Grille if you have the tools to make the rivets look like GM's.

Some 63-64 parts shown here also.

JR

[Ray K.]

Re: 1965 Grill Question

The Chevrolet dealer in San Diego where I worked did stock a lot of Corvette items, including grilles for all the years up to that time frame. Somewhere around July of 1967 I became aware that the original '65 grille was no longer available, that it had been superseded by the '66-67 style grille a year prior in July of '66. Luckily, we still had one in inventory, which I quickly purchased, and that grille is currently installed on my '65 today.

Ray

[Ray K.]

Re: 1965 Grill Question

Hey Guys,
I'm in the process of doing a frame off on my '65 coupe and in need of finding the front grille's #2 intermediate support, part number 3866467 (ref: assembly manual UPC 13, page B2) for the restoration of my original front grille. Would anybody, by chance, have one that I could buy or know of someone that may have one and be willing to sell it?
Ray

[Joe R.]

Re: 1965 Grill Question

Ray,

Don't have a 65 assembly manual but probably have one in that stack pictured above. If you can send a picture of what it looks like I would be happy to match it to what I have in stock.

JR

[Mark P.]

[Gary J.]

Re: 1965 Grill Question

If you had the correct rivits you could drill out the repro rivits and install the correct ones

[Wayne M.]

Re: 1965 Grill Question

Here's the #2 intermediate support, #3866467 (non-NOS ). Future project; I figure with an assortment of vice grips, and a wide-jaw/soft jaw table vice, that it will be presentable for a driver car. The grille opening in a C2 is recessed, and the predominant visuals are the bumpers and licence plate. No wonder that the '66 cast grille superceded the '65 in service; there are about 36 pieces (11 part numbers; 18 parts/side x 2 sides), plus about 60 rivets.

[Stephen B.]

Re: 1965 Grill Question

What's source for the correct rivets for a '65 grill? I bought on at Carlisle last year that I am tweaking back into shape.

Thanks

[Mark P.]

Re: 1965 Grill Question

Thanks for all the information. I really appreciate it.

[Mark P.]

Re: 1965 Grill Question



I managed to find an original grill. Any suggestions on how to recondition the black anodized center parts ? I don't want to take it apart and disturb rivets.

[Tom D.]

Re: 1965 Grill Question

GOOD FIND! Most of the '65 Corvette racers would have removed the grille. That's what happened when Mike Oleyar owned my car. A couple of them are probably still hanging on the wall somewhere. Mike's stuff ended up at Carlisle, many years ago.

[Ken R.]

Re: 1965 Grill Question

AS I remember, back in the late 80's I bought a repro grille and redid the rivet heads. Made a die punch with rounded indent and used that to hit with hammer and smash the tall rivet head. Looked like original then. The good old days.

[Mark P.]

Re: 1965 Grill Question

Do these rivets look original ? The rivets look flatter than on the reproduction grills.

[Gary S.]

Re: 1965 Grill Question

Yes they look correct...see my post #9 with pictures. I have judged many 65's in the past and all reproduction grills I saw had ugly rivets...but pretty and pretty counts big next to a $20K paint job. Did you find the manufacturer's stamp on the grill someplace?