I see some cars with gold striping/wheels that have the "Camaro" wording on the ftont lower grille insert in gold to match, and some with silver Camaro lettering. Enough of them that it makes me think they didn't always get gold lettering on the grille with gold stripes. Some I've seen this way are fairly original/lower mile cars. Was it a year thing, a supply thing, or are the ones with silver lettering just replaced at some point? Asking about 1987 model year specifically, but would be interested in know about all years.

Secondary question... how close are the reproduction lower grilles to original? i see they lack the "dimples" where the screws would go for the plate bracket, but is everything else accurate? I've never seen on in person.

 

Anyone?

 

Curious to the answers myself. There are a number of members on here that have the knowledge of the history of these cars.

 

By the way. I am looking for a nice lower grille with gold lettering and no plate bracket holes if anyone has one.

 

I believe it is. Mine is gold and I've seen other cars with gold striping/wheels that had the gold grille lettering.

 

To my knowledge, yet, it's always gold. Could be wrong, but that's my understanding.

 

Ok, I need to find an NOS one with gold letters. I question if they even exist.

 

I THINK they matched the interior. I also believe the yellow was one of the only colors that you could get grey/black interior while having the gold striping and decals...


Mine 87 is yellow with gold pinstripping, emblems, and decals but has the black interior. It had grey CAMARO on the front grille that we changed to gold when we got the front resprayed...

 

Far as I know, all paint colors were available with a black interior and gold striping but that might have varied by year. For sure black cars were, as I've owned two of them. I'm not aware of the gray interior ever being used with gold striping.

But to the original question, gold stripe cars got the matching gold Camaro lettering in the grille. They faded fairly quickly though.

The reproduction grilles are too glossy. The original grilles were more of a matte finish.

 

So if you ordered a black Iroc with black cloth interior, and interior dictated stripe color, were stripes silver or gold? Seems what you’re saying is the only way you ever got gold stripes was with tan interior?

 

No, I was saying the opposite. You didn't have to get a tan interior to get gold striping. I've had two black on black cars with gold striping.

 

So what option code was it to order/select stripe color? Was looking at window stickers in another thread and saw none that mentioned anything but paint color at the bottom of the option list.

 

I'm fairly certain that 1987 was the same as 1986 in terms of color combinations. That means that a black IROC with black or saddle interior would have gold accents and wheels. Black with gray or red interior would have silver accents and wheels.

 

Stripe and wheel color was solely determined by what exterior/interior color combo was ordered. You could not select the stripe/wheel color seperately.

 

thanks, while this is new to me, it makes sense after viewing a bunch of original window stickers and never seeing any mention of wheel or stripe color mentioned on any of them, only interior trim and exterior paint colors.

 

I've seen black or tan interior with gold exterior.
I've seen black or grey interior with silver exterior.
......if you ordered black interior, what determined the gold or silver exterior?

 

According to the order guide, black with black interior got gold accents. In 1986 anyway.

 

Can't speak specifically to black cars, and can't speak specifically to '86, but I've definitely seen black interiors without the gold exterior. .....having spent a good amount of time looking for a blue car, I can specifically tell you I've seen more than a few blue/black interior cars, both IROC and Z28, without gold.

Edit** -I should probably also clarify that I can't speak to what the specific RPO's were. Hard to know what's original with older cars, but with 35 years of thirdgen ownership, I've seen so many I kinda took it as fact. Could always be wrong.

 

A quick google search of black interior shows countless red, fire red, and blue cars with black interior and silver exterior. Also found a few black and yellow cars with black interior and gold exterior. Wonder if the black interior carried EITHER gold OR silver exterior, depending specifically on paint color. Would make sense. Feeling like that's likely the case.

 

Unless it's an original paint, unmolested car, you can never know if it was painted or had decals/stripes changed out. You would need to see the SPID on them to be sure of what they came with when new.

I'm just going by what is in the published GM order guide, which has typically been gospel in terms of what they did and didn't offer or build. I've been in this business for over 25 years and I've only seen them build something for regular production that wasn't supposed to be available, once. It can happen but it's very rare. In 2002, according to the order guide, you weren't supposed to be able to order a Silver with Taupe interior Firebird/Trans Am but I was able to order a Silver/Taupe WS6. That was the last time that I saw anything like that happen.

I don't have the 87 color combos from the 1987 order guide because they're missing from the PDF, so they could be different than 86.

 

Do you by chance have the '85 equivalent of that sheet?

 

It’s odd that black cars with black interior got gold stripes and wheels, yet every other exterior color with black interior got silver stripes and wheels. I know 1985 offered red stripes, was red interior required to get those?

 

That's exactly what I was wondering about the 85's.

 

In doing a little personal research using Bring a Trailer completed auctions, it seems that’s indeed the case. In 1985 black cars with black interior got gold wheels and stripes like later years, black with gray interior got silver stripes/wheels, and black cars with tan interior got gold wheels/stripes. The only way you got red stripes was with a red interior.

 

1985

 

I for sure have a yellow iroc, with black interior, gold wheels, gold stripes, and a gray front grille

 

Gearhead, your chart shows exactly what I was sorta hinting at. -meaning with black you got gold with the black, but on blue you got silver. It WAS dependent on exterior color.

 

are you sure the grille has never been replaced? Thinking it should have gold lettering if the stripes were good originally. What year is your car?

 

Yes. Mine is a 1987.

Here is another one with the gold interior and stripes, but silver grill.

 

here is another one with gold strips and silver grill.

I am 90% sure it had to match the interior.

 

As far as the color of lettering in the grille, the only examples that matter are 100% known original cars, or clear pictures of original cars long ago.

The gold lettering tended to fade and wear off, even back in the 90's. Couple that with the fact that the replacement grilles, the ones with glossy paint, were only available with silver lettering and they have been on the market for 20+ years. There's a very good chance that even a clean and original looking car will have non-original lettering on the grille.

For my experiences, gold trimmed cars that I saw back in the day had gold lettering. When the lettering faded on mine, I painted them gold.

 

I bought my car from the owner that bought it in 1995

Sorry I don't have a picture from 1987. Can you provide a car where the interior DOESN'T match the interior that is original?

 

NuffNuff, I love finding out new details on different options and colors, and I'm happy to say that I was wrong if some evidence goes against my opinion. In this case though, I've gotta agree with 86BlackIroc. Just too easy to change it, for one of a hundred reasons, added to the fact that the repops are all silver..... ....I'd have to say they were probably all originally gold.

 

Did they ever even make over the counter GM replacements with gold Camaro letters? I have never seen one. Perhaps any time a car got a replacement grille, even original GM replacements, they got silver.

 

It was dependent on both exterior and interior combo.

 

It definitely should have. The only way it wouldn't have gold is that it was replaced at some point over the last 40 years or it was a factory mistake. If the car isn't super low mileage with original paint, there's absolutely no way to know. It SHOULD have gold grill with gold wheels/decals though.

 

So this is slightly off topic, but would you happen to have any of those charts for the '85-'87 Z28's? They had more colors available and more stripe colors available as well. Over the years, I've never be able to pinpoint what exactly dictated each strip color.


One thing I forgot to mention earlier, I find it very interesting that a buyer could not specify a stripe color. I realize that this day and age, that's very normal. But at the same time these cars were offered, the Chevrolet trucks gave you an array of paint and two-tone choices, as well as more than one "recommended" interior color choice. I say it like that because it was simply recommended. A buyer could pick another color interior if they desired.

 

it IS odd there was no way to select your stripe color aside from choosing the corresponding interior color. I can see them not allowing silver stripes with tan interior (not that it would be a terrible combo) but if I ordered a car with black interior I'd think they'd allow any color wheels/stripes you wanted. Surprisingly they did not.

 

They didn't allow custom combinations in order to streamline production. It's just easier to have a set color based on exterior/interior, rather than letting the dealer or customer choose their accent colors.

 

yes I understand it’s to make it easy, same as grouping options together in packages rather than allowing customers to choose the individual options they actually want… I just would have thought the choice of 2 different colors of stripes/wheels would have been something they’d have allowed back then. Would have thought it to be fairly easy to list the stripe/wheel color on the build sheet along with other trim details/options to be followed for each car.

 

Yes. I was referring to black interior. gold or silver accents were dependent on exterior.

 

1987 Z28 is also missing from the 1987 order guide. 1985 and 1986 below.

 

Anyone have the factory color/trim selection charts for 88 or 89 like the above ones for 85 and 86?

 

I've had a ton of these cars. On all of my original ones, the lettering on the grille was ALWAYS gold when they had gold stripes...on all years

 

I had owned several of these cars as well in the early 90's when they were just 4 or 5 years old. In Wisconsin it is/was required to have a front license plate, but every one of these cars I bought I would remove the front bracket, run down to the Chevy dealer & buy a new grill because the three holes left behind drove me crazy The exception is my 87 I still have since those days, it still has the original gold lettered grill, but sadly has the three left over bracket holes to go with.

I found out way back then the gold lettered grill was already discontinued & this was at the latest 1995?
I was going to buy a silver one and repaint the letters but never did.

I would be willing to bet there are a bunch of cars out there with original GM silver lettered grills, but they are not original to the car.
I personally know I did that 4 times.
If the silver letters would not have bothered me 30 years ago my 87 would also have silver letters today just like the yellow one above.

Next time you see a silver lettered grill on a very original car with gold trim, I think there is a possibility it spent some time in a state that required front plates in its past.

I think there would be an RPO on the spid for the plate bracket as well?

 

Gold stripes, gold letters. But F-body-fan, above ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ,makes a great point.

 

Yes, I have never ever seen an NOS one with gold lettering. And of course Hawks makes a repro and doesn't do gold lettering either.