1962 Chrysler 300 Grille?

[StevenGuthmiller]

I have a piece of stainless steel wire mesh cut for the background of my '62 Chrysler 300 grille & now I'm confused as to what color it should be.

I've looked at several pictures on line & I'm getting mixed results.

Some look like aluminum, and others look like their painted black.

Does anyone know what color it should be?

 

Steve

 

[asfastasu]

I googled 1962 chrysler grill, I seen more aluminum then black, so that's what I would go with. But its your build.

[Casey]

I don't see the black at all, only a blue and gold dress. 

Seriously though, the mesh on both images looks like natural metal color to me, but the actual positive mesh "lines" appear thicker in the top photo, hiding more of the negative space.

[gtx6970]

If i remember right they are a dark grey

[John Goschke]

Factory and vintage photos seem to show it being black. The design also makes more sense that way. Restored cars are often not the best reference.

Love this SS/SA drag car! Also notice the ultra-rare '62 Dodge Custom 880 ragtop in the background!

 

[BigTallDad]

According to the factory brochures, the 300 had a black mesh grille and the Newport was a natural metal.

I've found this place to be a goldmine of information:

http://oldcarbrochures.com/

 

[Mike Chernecki]

Growing up we had a couple '62 Windsor's, the grille was silver on all of them. Any 300 I have seen had a black grille.

Edited November 26, 2016 by Mike Chernecki

[StevenGuthmiller]

Thanks guys.

I only ask because after getting the mesh cut & in place I thought it looked pretty nice without painting it black.

But I do want to keep it accurate if possible, so I'll most likely go with black.

 

Steve

 

[DumpyDan]

Looks good either way to me

[unclescott58]

Which version of 300 are we talking about here? The H letter car? Or the new Sport series 300 that replace the Windsor on the US side of the Canadian border? This may make the diffence. Though I don't have time to do any real research on this right this moment. Also things could be changed on the cars as model year went on. The car may have come with one style grille early in the model run. Than for what ever reason switched to the other. I'm going to have to look into this later on in the week when I have some time.

R. Scott Aho

 

[om617]

Original brochure for North America,

 

[Art Anderson]

That grille mesh, from the factory when new, was flat black.

Art

[flamingojh]

The grille I believe was a woven wire mesh ( metal - something like this Woven Wire Mesh - Metal )- most likely an aluminum or stainless steel.  Obviously, these alloys are not naturally black, so this material was most likely either powder-coated or just maybe plain old spray painted to give it the black effect.

The openings look pretty tight (in order to not let anything in, rocks, etc....) so I would guess this was maybe about a 30 x 30 mesh.  30 wires per inch in either direction.

[unclescott58]

The above brochure, which I have one in my collection, only shows the 300 'sport' series. Not the 300 letter car. The 300H. Which appeared in a seprate brochure, that I'm sorry to say I do not have in my collection. Still, interesting to note that the sport series 300 in the brochure shot has a blacked out grille. 

I do have the old 300 source book by Bonsall and Shields. That book is mainly reprints of old Chrysler 300 letter car brochures. Most years the letter cars got their own brochure. And they were black-and-white. This is true for the '62 H. The H was shown in a black-and-white fold out that year. It is obvious looking at the one photo in that brochure of the front of car, the grille is blacked like it's lower priced 'sport' series siblings. 

One last note. I do not always trust what I see in car sales brochures. Many times there have been changes made to cars between the time they appear on the show floor, and the time the brochure was put together. Late in year the company may than release a revised brochures showing the change. But, this did not always happen. I still would question if Chrysler may have changed the grille somewhere in the model year. For example, If rock chips were showing up on black finish of the 62's grille. Or maybe a change in the proceived customer reaction to the looks of the grille (more so with 'sport' series 300). Or of change in vendors who make the grille. Any of these could have effected what the grille would look like though out the model run. I don't if any of these happened. But, it is still a possibility looking at Steven's pictures above.

R. Scott Aho

 

Edited November 30, 2016 by unclescott58

[StevenGuthmiller]

Lots of great info here guys!

I appreciate all of it.

I guess at this point it's safe to say that black was most likely the color for the grille, at least at some point.

By the way Scott, the Johan kit does depict the H letter car.

 

Steve

[unclescott58]

The more reasearch I do, the more I'm sure the '62 300s all came with the black grille mesh from the factory. Sport or letter car. 

R. Scott Aho

 

[unclescott58]

Oh! P.S. The '62 Chrysler New York had the same front end look. The only difference is a silver mesh grille insert, and different center grille emblem.

R. Scott Aho