Our 69 Yenko Chevelle restoration

[SS427]

I thought the 70 grilles and headlights were a b!!ch to align and make them aesthetically pleasing. Damn these 69 grilles and headlights really suck. Not covering the time put into restoring an assembly line grille (NOS end pieces) I have just over 6 hours invested in installing and fine tuning the grille, headlights and headlight surrounds to make them as perfect as possible. I am close but without major fabricating being done to the core support this is a good as it gets.

Centering headlights in the core support is almost always an issue and they rarely if ever fit perfect out of the box. My previous painter/bodyman from Minnesota taught me a neat trick. Using washers as spacers glued to the back of the headlight buckets you can move the buckets up, down or over either direction. The down side it is also moves the headlight forward so it becomes a compromise. I was able to lessen the huge gap I was having in one side of each surround by at least 1/4" and while not perfect it is pretty darn close.

I know there are some that will not sleep tonight knowing there are washers glued to the backs of the buckets but rest assured, I will sleep great knowing that I now have gaps I can live with.