67 Grille & Auto console

[Al R.]

Has anyone had a front grille or console rechromed that looked good enough not to lose points. The price of the NOS items is currently not in my budget. The chrome man I normally use in NC, told me on the console, that it would lose most of it's grain when rechromed. So, I'm looking for alternatives. TIA Al

[Russ S.]

Re: 67 Grille & Auto console

If you watch ebay long enough you should be able to get a NOS grille for $400-$450 and I doubt if you could get a grille re-chromed for less than that unless it was in really nice shape without pitting in which case it probably wouldn't need re-chroming any way. My original grille was pretty nice except the paint needed freshening up so I masked it off and re-painted the non chrome areas. It turned out quite nice.


Edit: There's one on Ebay now for $499. #350414706681

[Al R.]

Re: 67 Grille & Auto console

Thanks Russ! Anyone got an answer for the console plate ?

[Steve M.]

Re: 67 Grille & Auto console

I had my console re-chromed by a shop here in MN that I think does very average work. Followed some good advice I found here on the board about painting and it turned out very nice. Grain was still good and it judged fine.

[Ronald L.]

Re: 67 Grille & Auto console

Al,
Read some the the treads on re chrome, in my experience the chrome guys all want to polish the day lights out of these things and the cost is like the price to go to the moon and back. For example a 66 BB ignition shroud the guy wanted to polish out all the die - scratch lines even though I said no, strip, no polish and plate.

I am sure in their defense the majority of their work is custom and if they leave one minute scratch in there, the customer wants a replate free.

On the console, if they touch the grain - its gone.

[Scott S.]

Re: 67 Grille & Auto console

Has anyone had a front grille or console rechromed that looked good enough not to lose points. The price of the NOS items is currently not in my budget. The chrome man I normally use in NC, told me on the console, that it would lose most of it's grain when rechromed. So, I'm looking for alternatives. TIA Al

Al,

I would advise caution with regard to buying a shifter center console (NOS or used) without being able to see it in person first. That goes for just about anything with chrome, but especially for the more expensive items. A NOS center shifter console can have bad chrome even if it just sat in a GM box for the last 25+ years. Somehow, problems like this don't always show up in the seller's pictures. That's a curious thing, because the problems with the chrome on the NOS shifter console I bought were obvious upon initial examination, and showed up just fine in the pictures I took.

[Domenic T.]

Re: 67 Grille & Auto console

I bought a new grill in 1971 for my 67. I got it at the dealership I was working at.
It was pitted in all areas that were not polished when it was first chromed.

It has never been re-chromed and seemed that it was born with the imperfections as I was the one that took it out of the box.

DOM