79 GMC grille

[Big Chip]

I will get a picture this morning of what I have this morning and post it later.

I am guilty of tossing things I should have kept.  If only foresight was as clear as hindsight!

[Engineer]

Haha. I couldn’t afford the oil to fly a B-17 let alone the fuel. But we can have the dream and that doesn’t cost anything.

Maybe future generations can have what we cannot just by using a 3D printer....

[Stewart G Griffin]

i agree that current automotive styling needs help and planes are wonderful and all that, but back to original topic:

Take a look at this:
https://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/pts/d/1980-gmc-chevy-3-4-ton-4x4/6378536161.html

i'm not saying i can go and snatch it because it's not THAT close to me, BUT we can at least see if this is the correct grill you need or would be satisfied with.  i thought 80 was when they switched to rectangular headlights, but maybe not?

I thought 80 was the year of the rectangular headlights too.  Maybe that is an early 80?  I believe that is the correct grille and I found one near me on craigslist that is correct also but it sort of seems like the guy must need meth money or something judging by the ad. 

https://nmi.craigslist.org/cto/d/1979-gmc-sarge/6363933736.html

I have emailed the guy and gotten no response yet.  I have found some on car-part.com but it seems like almost no one is willing to ship it.

The only people who are doing meth are the 27 people who are watching that ebay grill............

[Stewart G Griffin]

P.S.   time to warm up the 3-D printer........

[Big Chip]

Here’s the hood latch setup.




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[Big Chip]

The last picture is as good as I could get through that stupid tube grill. There’s no mechanism for the secondary latch so should I assume the whole setup was removed?


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[VileZambonie]

Right but your pictures cropped out where the part you say is missing would be...

[Big Chip]

I’m missing the part that isn’t numbered. I’ll go ahead and add that to my list.


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[Jason S]

One option, to get away from the tube grille, is the aftermarket 77-80 Chevy truck grille (without bowtie). 

They're not real expensive and, in my opinion, look better than a tube grille. Could make things up front look a bit better until the correct grille can be found.

I am a P-51 man myself...

I've been fortunate enough to have owned several P-38's... 

[Stewart G Griffin]

Most Rolls Royce grills on ebay are not priced even close to that one, so CORRECTION:

If anyone's doing meth, it's the person trying to sell that piece of plastic for $2,300!

[Big Chip]

One option, to get away from the tube grille, is the aftermarket 77-80 Chevy truck grille (without bowtie). 

They're not real expensive and, in my opinion, look better than a tube grille. Could make things up front look a bit better until the correct grille can be found.

I am a P-51 man myself...

I've been fortunate enough to have owned several P-38's... 

Nice!!  That's the only P38 I could ever lay my hands on!

[Big Chip]

Most Rolls Royce grills on ebay are not priced even close to that one, so CORRECTION:

If anyone's doing meth, it's the person trying to sell that piece of plastic for $2,300!

Haha! I can't argue that!

The guy from the craigslist ad emailed me last night.  I haven't talked to him yet but I am pretty sure my offer of $150 will be the best one he gets on that truck.  Come to think of it, $150 may be a bit generous. 

[Henry]

Hi Big Chip:
Here is a link to a page in a 79-84 GM truck parts catalog: http://www.gmpartswiki.com/getpage?pageid=57780

From this you can see that there were 2 different part numbers of grille for the GMC C-series light trucks in 1979. In 1980, there were no less than 3 different part numbers. With these part numbers, you can probably do a search on gmpartswiki and find an image of each grille. I suspect they look very similar with just subtle differences like color and moulding and so either of the two for 1979 would look OK on your truck.  It appears that one grille was for a styling option called "street coupe". At least now you know the exact part number(s) you are looking for concerning grille and moulding.
Regards,
Henry

[Big Chip]

Thank you, Henry.  I really appreciate the help and I think this will really help with the search. 

[Big Chip]

I found the secondary hood latch for my truck.  You’ll notice by the severe patina that this is a genuine Michigan part.

Does anyone know if there was any rhyme or reason for the different style hood latches?  The style on mine seems to be the minority and I ended up finding what I needed on an 80 C10. There were 79’s that had the other style latch so I’m just curious.




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