Grille

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78C10BigTen

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The mid 80's 4 light GMC grill is my favorite. I'm swapping my 80 single square to the 86 nose with that grill.
My favorite is the 73-75 inset grille. Im trying to swap mine to that style
 

Hatchet54

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I say keep that grille. The tube grille is my favorite look on these trucks. Especially yours in particular seems to have a nice texture to it, the bar stock has a good edge that looks softer than the one I have.

I was a designer once upon a time, and I think I'm drawn to these grilles for two reasons:
1) the horizontal lines make the truck look wider, something that I think is desirable on this style of vehicle.
2) the simplicity of texture lends itself well to the overall simplistic shape of a square body.

I think some of the OEM grilles were a little "busy" for what is otherwise a very basic-featured vehicle. Like there was too much detail crammed into one spot on the front of the rig and not enough elsewhere throughout the body.

For me it's a matter of aesthetic proportion and flow. But I also have no particular bias towards different years or factory originality, either, and I get that too.
I just like what I think looks good. In the end, you should too!
 

ali_c20

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Original.
 

Blue Ox

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When we bought the truck I kind of pushed to customize it because, let's face it, they all looked like factory trucks so if you wanted to stand out you had to dress it up.

Now, don't misunderstand, I think a lot of the custom accessories look really good. Right now my pickup has running boards, mudflaps and aluminum aftermarket wheels on it that came off my old Suburban, and the 'burb had a push bar/brush guard on it that I thought looked really good.

But over time I came to realize that these trucks were somewhat custom right from the factory because there were no "packages', every piece was spec'd separately. And of course, over time an original factory truck started to become a unicorn for that same reason. Everybody wanted to make theirs stand out. So, much like that mint Mickey Mantle rookie card, originals would be worthless if everybody's mom hadn't thrown out the shoebox full of baseball cards in the attic.

I say keep that grille. The tube grille is my favorite look on these trucks. Especially yours in particular seems to have a nice texture to it, the bar stock has a good edge that looks softer than the one I have.

I was a designer once upon a time, and I think I'm drawn to these grilles for two reasons:
1) the horizontal lines make the truck look wider, something that I think is desirable on this style of vehicle.
2) the simplicity of texture lends itself well to the overall simplistic shape of a square body.

I think some of the OEM grilles were a little "busy" for what is otherwise a very basic-featured vehicle. Like there was too much detail crammed into one spot on the front of the rig and not enough elsewhere throughout the body.

For me it's a matter of aesthetic proportion and flow. But I also have no particular bias towards different years or factory originality, either, and I get that too.
I just like what I think looks good. In the end, you should too!

Obviously it's all personal preference, and I do agree that his grille looks better than a lot of custom jobs that I've seen.

My only observation here is that it's interesting that most people perceive these trucks as plain and simplistic. Not that they are a landmark art form, but I'm often impressed by the subtlety of styling that these trucks have. In fact, even though society has dubbed them "Squarebodys" GM referred to the style as their "Rounded Line" because of all the curves of the windows, windshield and body corners. If you look at the top of the bed corners and how they curve into the flat panels of the body sides you wouldn't consider it "square" at all.

Just sayin'.
 
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Shorty81

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When we bought the truck I kind of pushed to customize it because, let's face it, they all looked like factory trucks so if you wanted to stand out you had to dress it up.

Now, don't misunderstand, I think a lot of the custom accessories look really good. Right now my pickup has running boards, mudflaps and aluminum aftermarket wheels on it that came off my old Suburban, and the 'burb had a push bar/brush guard on it that I thought looked really good.

But over time I came to realize that these trucks were somewhat custom right from the factory because there were no "packages', every piece was spec'd separately. And of course, over time an original factory truck started to become a unicorn for that same reason. Everybody wanted to make theirs stand out. So much like that mint Mickey Mantle rookie card, originals would be worthless if everybody's mom hadn't thrown out the shoebox full of baseball cards in the attic.



Obviously it's all personal preference, and I do agree that his grille looks better than a lot of custom jobs that I've seen.

My only observation here is that it's interesting that most people perceive these trucks as plain and simplistic. Not that they are a landmark art form, but I'm often impressed by the subtlety of styling that these trucks have. In fact, even though society has dubbed them "Squarebodys" GM referred to the style as their "Rounded Line" because of all the curves of the windows, windshield and body corners. If you look at the top of the bed corners and how they curve into the flat panels of the body sides you wouldn't consider it "square" at all.

Just sayin'.
I personally never cared for the term "squarebody". 67-72 were "Action Line" and like you said 73-87 "Rounded Line". I just refer to them as "gold ole' Chevy Trucks !!
 

Zoomalot

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Factory!!!
 

80BrownK10

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I'd say original. I just went back with this 79 grille in my 80. I hated that tube grille on mine since day one . It's been rusty the 15 years or so I have had the truck. Just put the grille in it a month ago.
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