silver and black grille...'71 GTX

[steved]

is the silver on the grille surround just the argent silver? Where's the best place for the restoration paint for the grille and the turn signal surrounds? Eastwood? Other?

I got all the plastic parts for the GTX (as well as the 440) last thursday. it's time to start detailing and planning the build.(that'll be another thread)

I saw the '72 GTX thread about the silver being slightly darker. just wondering if the same held true for '71.

sjd

[steved]

I took a better look at what I had, and the left grille had been repainted, but the middle and right grille sections were the darker silver.

I'm going to check out the SEM stuff from the '72 grille thread...

update with a picture:



sjd

[Eric]

The grille silver did darken a bit with age. I'm not aware of anyone making the correct color in a can. Here's an NOS Satellite grille, the base color should be the same for your GTX.
The grille on the B7 blue car in my sig. is unrestored/survivor....FWIW

[steved]

Thanks Eric,

That's clearly not the rallye wheel silver.

sjd

[Eric]

Interesting too, I believe the Satellite grille was actually two different silvers, one on the grill fins and the other on the base and headlight surrounds.
I used a grille silver paint from Totally Auto on my butterscotch car, but it is a little lighter than my B7. Interestingly though, I have a NOS GTX/runner grille center and the Totally Auto stuff matches it pretty good. I suppose Chrysler used different vendors at different times and the paint formula was no consistent.
Here's a closer pic of the B7 car.

[72RoadRunnerGTX]

At the time I was researching grille paint color for my 72’ RR, I had 1 NOS headlamp bezel, 1 NOS center section, both in pristine condition, and 1 nice used headlamp bezel. The color on all three pieces matched each other but did not match any of the two other Satellite grille parts I have, aged or not. The 72’ Sat. grilles (I believe to be carried over from 71’) look to be argent silver IMO.

As posted in the 72’ grille paint thread referenced, I came to believe the paint on these 72’ RR pieces to be unique among every other mopar grille paint I could find. Then I ran across the SEM 39023, a near perfect match to the NOS parts. Under low light, it appears very dark and in bright lighting looks like brushed stainless steel or titanium. Would be in keeping with what I have always read that the 72’ grille was designed to resemble the engine intake on a jet fighter.

I don’t believe the SEM 39023 paint would be correct for your 71’, pretty sure it would have been one of the non-textured argent silvers. The SEM paint chart that had the 39023 chip on it had quite a few other variations of silver “bumper filler” colors, I would take your best original example to your local automotive paint store that would have the SEM paint charts.

[gary]

What is correct for a 71' GTX grille?
Mine is all black (gloss) I have seen many variations.What is correct??? Gary 71'gtx

[71440 gtx]

its the same as 71 road runner argent silver and black