67 RS center grille

[Steve68]

My research on the 68 RS center grille, yes I’m still at it,    (http://www.camaros.org/forum/index.php?topic=1087.0) has revealed some interesting “facts” regarding the 67 RS center grille.  I thought that I would share some of those observations with you folks at this point.  Hope you 67 guys and gals will find them somewhat interesting.  BTW, the 68 grille is a direct descendent and linked to the 67 grille right back to the blueprint.  More on that in the 68 thread later.  Some of what I’ve gleamed so far:

1966

Feb – March  “Original” RS grille is blueprinted.

April              Grille is redrawn and redesigned.

1967

Jan                Grille is redesigned and part number is changed from 3898141 to 3921841.  The material is mandated to be ABS black plastic.  The earlier grille (3898141) may have been   produced as gray and then painted black “on the line”.

Sept              Grille revision made – not sure what that revision was at this time.

Oct                You could not get a separate 67 RS center grille (3921841) but you could get a 67 RS grille assembly (upper/center/lower already put together) part 3905745.  That part was then substituted with the 68 grille assembly part 3929281 in December of 68.

Side notes:      I have yet to find in any P&A where you could buy a separate 3921841.  This part number has never been substituted, transferred, or removed from service.  It would appear they were never reproduced separately as the 68 (3919060) was.

The differences between the 67 RS and 68 RS center grilles are that the 68 has the raised horizontal ribs (bars) and the 67 does not have the silver/chrome horizontal bars as did the 68 (the research continues to show up to 05D of 68 model year had chrome and after did not – see above link for more on this).  The shape and size of the grille openings (rectangles) and all the other dimensions are the same between the two years.

Steve

[Steve68]

Added to the original post, a 2nd sentence to Oct 1967.

Steve

[Buddy]

You could get the 67 center grill seperately from GM as I did so more than once in 1978 and 1980

Buddy

[Steve68]

Buddy

What you bought was likely the replacement grille for both the 67 and 68.  One quick way to tell is to look at the horizontal bars and if they are raised above the vertical ones it is not an original 67 design.  I have modified the original post by adding the 67 part number (3921841) to hopefully clarify the October entry.

Steve