69 Roadrunner Grill

I have done a bit of research online on the 69 RoadRunner Grill and have found a lot of inconsistencies. The older repop that I have on my last car came with a light colored Argent paint that matched an NOS Headlight Bezel I had at the time. The current repop grill and headlight bezel set I bought for the current project has a much darker Argent paint with a very sparse "texture". While researching to recoat it, I have found that Gibson and Badelson don't currently have a texture paint mix. Totally Auto no longer sells the texture paints. The newer repop says it fits Satellite, RoadRunner & Belvedere right on the box. Isn't the black trim missing on Satellite grills? I don't know about the Belvedere. Is there a TRUE answer? Or is everyone just taking the crap out of the box, installing it and not really giving a [censored]?

I do believe the Satelite and Belvedere grills were painted silver. The RR grill was painted black. I'm not sure about the shade of the argent on the repops. I have a repopped set I bought about 5 years ago and it looks pretty good to me.

The one from 5 years ago is the light colored one. The current one is dark. I believe there was a break in availability. Maybe change in supplier, who knows. Is there more than one manufacturer? I will take a picture together later and post it.

Satellite & Belvederes had silver paint; Road Runners got a dark argent & black details.
The same grille FITS them, but is not correct.
I recall years ago that the repop grilles were nice, the textured argent was similar but not exact, and the rivets used for the brackets differed from OEM.
My comparison was the untouched/original cars I owned at the time.
Bummer that the dark argent is hard to find, maybe a supplier change or something.

I agree with the above. I had this issue a few years ago. I bought a NOS grille and my NOS headlight bezels came from two different sources. One bucket was the lighter argent and I found out what was said above; the colors were different for different models of cars.

At the time, I bought the dark agent textured paint from Totally Auto to pain the bezel but, the color was not right and their can sprayed horribly; I had to get a different tip from another paint can to get it to work right. Some suggested Krylon Textured Shimmer paint which is very close. I ended up using both paints; just a dusting of one (I can't remember in which order I did it) but, the end result came out very close but not exact. I can't even notice it with the buckets on the car but, if you put them side by side, you can notice. Fortunately, the bezel that needed painted had very little coverage on it to begin with so; I was able to match the texture of the other bezel.

I picked up the Krylon paint at my local Sears.

Oh great ... Sears !!!!

I've been thinking about the dark argent not currently being available, but haven't talked to an Axalta tech-rep buddy of mine to see if it's available in pints or quarts for guns.
I'm wondering if laying down a coat of black and then dusting it with that Krylon textured shimmer would get fairly close? In my case the particular car is a hot rod and it doesn't need to be exact, just break up a sea of black on a grille & bezel assy.

Here is a picture of two bezels. The one installed is the repop from 5 years ago and the one above is the current repop.

Original grill on my 69 RR. Photo was taken in '73. I had painted the center section but the bezels are original and untouched.

Those dark ones are WAY too dark - nowhere near original. The argent on the bezels is very close to the shade used on the taillight bezels. Now, did the shades vary between assembly plants ?? Possibly !

Is there a blueprint or something that the vendor had to follow when they made them originally?

Both repros also seem too shiny and with not enough texture. I'd say the shade of my originals was in between those two, as well.
I'm sure the specific argent was called out and somehow the color, texture, and area subject to QC of some sort.

QC ? Seriously ? In 1969 ?!?!?

This is an original grill.

https://static.wixstatic.com/media/008a74_631a31f7834747b688dedc1dd6fa71b2.jpg/v1/fill/w_750,h_563,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01/008a74_631a31f7834747b688dedc1dd6fa71b2.webp

What can I use to open that?

Click it now.

It looks to be in between the two repops.

Who sells the best Reproduction 1969 Roadrunner grille at this point and is it the Goodmark brand or is there a better brand etc?