I was lucky enough to find a couple of the one year only, 72 grills at a local F Body collector/Seller. They were not in too bad a shape considering. One is missing the chrome bezel, which is not a problem because I have those. The other had some slight damage. See below
I first had to straighten out the two deformed pieces. Using a propane torch to heat them and a pair of needle nose pliers, I was able to straighten them out.
Next, I had to find a piece of donor plastic of the same thickness and cut out a blank just slightly larger than needed.
I then used sand paper to slowly work it down until the fit was perfect. Once I had it to a snug fit, I glued it in place with some super glue. The fit was good enough that I didn’t need epoxy. Once it was set up, I just had to do some very slight sanding to make sure the edges were all level.
The repair looks pretty good, if I say so myself. Once I sand down the entire grill and repaint it, you would be hard pressed to find the repairs. Next on to polishing the chrome trim rings.
Stripping it down with some 220.
After stripping