Chumley

Isn't the stone shield on '71-72 supposed to be one solid piece? The one on my '72 appears to be 3 separate pieces. I have '72 Supreme grilles to put on. I'm not sure what model grilles are on there now. Is the grille support the same for earlier model years on a Cutlass? I'm still trying to figure out what the previous owners did to this car. Thanks, Chumley

texasred

There are three pieces...kind of. The actual stone shield is a one piece upside-down T. Then there are the headlight surrounds (one each side).

Is that what you mean?

C.J.

Chumley

Yes, I got it figured out, I thought the shield extended all the way to the outer headlights. Now here's another quandry(for me) I removed the grilles that were on there and tried fitting the Supreme grilles on. All the tabs lined up the same, EXCEPT the outer side tab holes don't line up with the screw holes in the metal brackets which are located behind the headlight assemblies. This tells me: #1. The plastic housing around the headlights are from a different model year('70 or older) OR #2. The grilles are possibly from a Vista Cruiser or some other model that uses the same looking grille.(egg crate design) The reason I suspect this is that the part numbers are not what they are supposed to be. The CORRECT #'s are: 410796-right, 231337-left. The numbers on mine are:410674-right, 410675-left. I could not find these numbers for ANY grille in my interchangable parts book. By the way, why are the correct numbers so drastically different from each other? Just a Detroit thing I guess. I'm finding all kinds of anomalies with this car. Thanks for all your help in figuring it all out.
Chumley

Eightupman

I believe that the ONLY car that used the checker design is the 1972 Supreme. The 442 one basically looks like a radiator or heater core, and the "S" model is just a series of horizontal lines. Unfortunately I would have to think as brittle and subject to damage as the front grill area of that car is, yours has been substituted. I do know that the 1970 stone shield is different from the 71-72, and the headlight housings may all bolt up, but tabs may be in the wrong spots. That may be the issue. (I have all those parts from a 1972 Supreme if you end up neding them...that was a poor sales pitch).
Post a pic or a link of the grills you have and someone here can surely ID what you have on there.

John

texasred

71-72 stone shields are the same,but the grills are different for those years. Any 71 grill will bolt up to a 71 and any 72 grill will bolt up to a 72, but they are not interchangable. See www.texas442.com for pictures on the different radiator supports and, thus, different grills.

C.J.

Oldsguy

BTW guys, just showing off something I learned last year. Believe it or not, the headlight surrounds are called "headlight doors" in the parts business, go figure......

Chumley

Apparently the eggcrate '72 design was used on Vista Cruisers as well as the Supreme. I'm still baffled at the part numbers, unless they were aftermarket replacements at the time and the maker used their own numbers. The problem is that the grille will fit in there, but if pushed in all the way so that the edge is flush with the front of the headlight door,(which doesn't fit real well as the steel trim hits the inside of doors) the mounting tab goes about an inch past the hole on the bracket it's supposed to attach to. There is room to drill new holes, but I'd rather have the correct parts. I'll take a closer look at all the parts involved, I'll figure it out eventually! Many thanks....Chumley