Dismantled the grille to access the A/C Drier and you know how it goes..."while I'm here". So, a few questions on grille parts repair and/or replacement.

The plastic grille insert top attachment tabs. All are broken to some degree. Any advice on repairs or should I just get new assemblies?
Headlight plastic surrounds (painted the car color) have several mounting posts broken. Repair or replace?

 

I tried repairing the tabs with fiberglass in my mispent youth. Never lasted more than a few days. Plastic welding might work better, but I can't recall the type of plastic used. The repop grills are pretty decent, just expensive.


As for the headlight surrounds, the problem is getting replacements painted - they all come bare gray. So sticking with what you have is probably best. I would try plastic welding or hot stapling, depending on the damage. The problem is the way they were made with the rather large and coarse screw, and no threads in the post, makes it an awfully high stress point. Depending on exactly what's happening it might be best to leave the broken posts mounted to the core support and super glue / epoxy the surround in place.

 

Thanks for the reply. I guess I'll buy new stuff. Painting gray parts is no problem. We do a lot of that around here. Maybe I'll try to tap the threads in the posts before installing or at least use some lubrimication.

 

What model of Cutlass? If it's the Cutlass, f85, or Cutlass S, no one reproduces those grills. You can use some JB Weld and reattach the plastic tabs, then sand them smooth and paint. Should hold just fine.

Headlight surrounds are reproduced by many vendors and not that expensive. OR, you could check in with some of the parts guys on this site who will have good used donor parts.

I'd suggest you search the Parts for sale section of the forum, or start a Parts Wanted thread of your own for the parts you'd like, assuming of course that you'd like to have original parts.

EDIT: Never mind, I just looked at your profile. Cutlass Supreme. Yes, those grills are reproduced.

 

FWIW, I'm also skilled in breaking all the tabs in the repop grills. That pushed me to just use the '71 grills instead! Good thing I like how they look.