Grill Filler for 73- where 2 find

[jakehog]

I'm in the process of putting the front body parts back together on my 73. I found out by doing a bit of reading here that evidentely there is a filler/strip that goes on the bottom of the grill to fill in some space between the bumper and the grill. Anyone reproduce these? Also pics of one would be much appreciated.

[burdar]

Your talking about a Challenger right?

Yes, there is a plastic trim piece that attaches to the front valance.  The leading edge of the trim piece is painted silver...it is a continuation of the silver on the grill. 

The front valance stainless attaches first.(with three small screws)  Then the plastic trim goes ontop of the stainless and uses something like 8 bolts to attach it.  I havn't seen it available in a repop.  I'll go take a picture of mine for you.  Give me a few minutes and I'll post it.

[burdar]

Here are a couple pics.  There are 9 small bolts that hold the plastic trim to the valance.  They have captive washers on them and say SEM on the heads.






EDIT........................
I just re-read your post and I think your talking about the gray rubber filler pieces between the body and the bumper.  There are three pieces on the front of the car.  The center piece screws to the grill.  The outer pieces screw to the header panel and clip into the front fenders.  They are NOT repopped.  A lot of guys take them off and push the bumpers in like the 72's.  I've seen NOS ones listed at Tony's Parts and at Arizona Parts.

Here is a pic of the drivers side end piece. 


I don't really have a good picture of the center piece.  You can just barely see part of it in this pic.

[Slotts]

Here are a couple pictures of two that I have. I refinished one that is really nice. The other is missing the tab on the end. It is a hard piece to find and they are not repoped.

Slotts

[burdar]

If you have a Cuda, they have a filler strip too.

Jim...that one looks great.  Is there any way you'd share your process?  I took some very fine wet/dry sandpaper to one section of mine just to see if it would clean up.  The section I did looks pretty good.  Yours looks even better though.  I'd love to hear how you did that one.

[Slotts]

Wow Darren, the front end looks great!       You have the valance trim piece nailed. I have seen more than a few that are painted black for the Rallyes and without the front edge in silver.

I had to sand it like you did to get the roughness out of it. Those filler pieces didn't stand up to weather conditions very well. I used a light coat of Grille Silver on it, just like the silver edge on your valance. I used Dupli-Color vinyl and fabric on the lower mounting frames. As you can see with the one not finished, they stained pretty badly.

Slotts

[burdar]

Thanks for the explanation.  It looks like I was going about it the right way.  Mine are accually in really good shape.  There is just a little discoloration on them that I need to remove.  I have a junk grill that has one of the center filler pieces on it.  It looks worse then the one you posted.  That one might not be able to be saved.

[jakehog]

Thanks for the input, I have a cuda. I don't know how bad it will look w/o one I guess till I piece it together. My car when I bought it years ago didn't have one and the grill was well in the same shape a lot of vintage grills are in i suppose, horrible. I have a nos grill and a fiberglass bumper I'm planning on using. I may be able to get creative on how I mount this bumper so there are no ugly gaps up there.

[IMNCARN82]

Most people don't use those.  Re-drill/slot the holes in the front to get it in. I took my rear brackets and cut about 3/4". Welded them back up and packed it to fit with washers. Worked really good. I do have the fillers for a cuda.The front is warped but useable. The rear is good. R/T

[dodj]

Most people don't use those.  Re-drill/slot the holes in the front to get it in. I took my rear brackets and cut about 3/4". Welded them back up and packed it to fit with washers. Worked really good. I do have the fillers for a cuda.The front is warped but useable. The rear is good. R/T

If you can't find a piece, it is relatively easy to do what IMNCARN said.
I must be one of the few people that think the bumpers look best stuck out further with the filler pieces in between.

[jakehog]

Thanks guys, I'll probably go without and just do a little work to get it to how I like it.