A few days ago, I was trying to put the grilles onto the stone shield, but I could not get things to line of properly. I could not get the holes at the rear bottom to line up, or the pins from the front grille trim piece into the cut outs on the stone shield.

Any tricks to getting them aligned properly? I have aftermarket '72 442 grilles and stone shield.

 

I was just looking at the assembly manual, and noticed a different part number between Cutlass S and 442 for the brackets that attach the grilles to the rad support.

Can 442 grilles be bolted to the Cutlass S grille brackets? Or will there be a problem with alignment?

 

The only difference I see are the side grill to radiator support brackets.
If the wrong ones are used, the holes and distances will be off.
Also the 442 grills will attach on top to the rad support with the rear holes (already there).

All grills should mount to the stone shield the same way, but it seems this is where you have issues..
Now you mentioned they are aftermarket, which by my experience, means "modify to fit"...

 

Yup... Just take your time. If I remember, I bolted the grilles to the core support and left them loose while I put that center stone shield on.There's plenty of adjustmentto make things nice. You do have the bumper off, right?

 

I do have the bumper off.

The body guy is in the process of getting everything lined up nicely, so he wanted to put the grilles and stone shield on. But if I can't bolt the 442 grilles to the Cutlass brackets, I guess I will have to use the cracked Cutlass S grilles for now for front end alignment, then buy the correct brackets for the 442 grilles and put those on later.

Think that would work?

 

Seems to me the 442 grilles just bolted farther back on the core support but the same on that stone shield. It did take some time to get things lined up though. Different from like a new Toyota or Honda where they pretty much go together right the first time as long as the rails are straight.
it does make me wonder how those older cars went together with any sort of speed and efficiency.

 

That would be your best bet for now if you do not have the right side brackets. Align it to something you know fits. Change the grilles when you get the car back.
HOPEFULLY the repro parts will fit like the factory ones with little mods.