After some discussion on a Facebook forum about the new Hawks reproduction grilles for our cars, it seems that the 1991-1992 OEM grilles were made some satin, some shiny? A member here has a 1991 Z28 1LE with 100 miles, and after looking over different pics of that car, it appears to have a satin grille. A Facebook guy has two NOS 91-92 Z28 grilles, and they're SUPER shiny. Another Facebook guy bought one at a GM dealership back in the late 90's and his grille is satin. Does anyone know if they were made both ways? Or were they all shiny and they faded out, like, immediately? Please post pics of yours, if you would!!

I'll start with a pic of the 100 mile 1991 1LE, and then a 1992 Z28 ZO3

 

Does red count? It’s shiny.

 

Yeah I knew the colored ones were shiny, but the black ones are the ones i am not sure of. But thanks for stepping up!!!

 

Here's an original '91-'92 I once had. As you can see it's satin finish.

 

1991 Satin

 

I pulled my original 92 Z28 one out... Some parts look glossy, some parts look flatter... Hard to tell since this one has 100,000 miles of wear on it...The repro one on the car is glossy... Which matches the finish better...

Realizing I will never use it, I put it on eBay yesterday...

 

Also my '92 Purple Haze convertible definitely had a matt black grill.

 

My old 92 Z vert that had 13,000 miles - car was 100% original

 

I can only find part number for 1 grille. There's a dude on Facebook that has an NOS 91-92 grille and it's glossy

 

IMO, that guy with the "NOS" grill - I'd bet it's been painted - people throw around the whole NOS tag way too often

 

It may just be a supplier or styling change as far as the satin/gloss goes. There are a few parts on the firebird that have subtle changes like that very late in the 92 run.

 

I'm the one that has two box and I didn't paint them and the are oem in box as well. I will post pics of my 91 z28 convertible that came from the factory with a gloss grille. No, it wasn't changed either I was the the one who took the front plate bracket of the car

 

I've seen literally dozens of 91-92 Z's (all original ultra low mile cars) with the satin / flat black installed from the factory - I've never seen one in gloss - not sayin it cant be true, as you have shown here, but I've never seen one on a factory original car - but maybe there are some out there ??? It makes for an interesting discussion for sure

 

One other thing to remember is the 92 Z/28's with Z03 (Heritage Edition) got body color grilles - IMO, this gloss black grill could be for a Black Heritage Edition car

 

Hey Jarrett, nice to see ya here. Welcome to TGO.

Darin

 

from what ive seen i do agree with you .. the only shiny black grilles ive seen are on the black heritage z28's and ive seen maybe one on a 92 1le red camaro with low miles but it could have been changed or gm was trying to get rid of there stock and threw one on this car ..

 

That was what i had actually thought all along, as well. I thought the only black shiny grilles were from black, Heritage Edition 92's.

 

An interesting fact was brought to my attention in regard to the P/N of the original GM grille - the repo's from OER and Hawks 3rd gen
carry the same SKU # as the GM part # (10139545) - I never noticed that before.

 

FWIW, I bought a new grille in 2017 when they were still available from GM, and it was shiny. The paint has since peeled off, and the bowtie has turned Pink

 

Would you happen to know what the P/N of that one was at that time?

 

I was wondering if they were painted or if the plastic was just different and was glossy. The paint makes sense as a Heritage Grille

 

GM sold the grills long after the originals were gone. It was an extremely popular upgrade. It's like everything else, vendors change, service parts arent always true to OE parts. Glossy is wrong for the application. Hawk's "new" grill is just the OER grill back in production with a jacked up price.

 

I'm thinking that the '92 with rpo zo3 will have the front grill the same color as the car. The 2nd pic below has the grill shinny. A friend of mine has a red '92 with rpo z03 and his grill was a shinny red. That's my observation.

 

Here’s a never used ‘85 - ‘90 grill. It has a satin finish. It was delivered to a body shop in 1996 and never used.

 

And now it can be delivered to my place.


I mean, obviously you're not using it

 

But I know it's there!

 

I don't even want that one. It needs to go to the right car that deserves it.....and I do not have that car

 

This is what you get if you google the part #

 

I've seen several different GM P/N's for that grille

 

Funny story on that grill.

A guy on FB was selling it as well as other OEM 3rd gen stuff left over from his body shop. BizJetTech saw the ad and said , hey man, raise your price, you're giving that away.. ..and he did. So I had to pay the BizJetTech tax on it.

Then the seller wanted cash and wanted it the NEXT MORNING. That was impossible since I lived quite a ways away. He was local to my friend 1MeanZ. So I asked Jeremy to meet him and pay him cash so he wouldn't sell it someone else.

 

Oh jeez......sorry, was just trying to help out the seller ..........but I dont even remember it

 

I know, no worries, man. You didn't even know I was talking to him. But when I saw your post I was like NO, No, no!!!!! LOL!