grill and header panel question

[Anonymous]

i bought my malibu and the person prior to me had taken off the header panel and put it inside the car. on the way home i hit a bump and i pretty much cracked the header panel in two right in the middle. i bought a 78 bu and put the header panel from it on my car. i know this is kind of long winded. the header panel that i got came from a landau car 78 malibu landau to be exact. it has the same grill as my 81 landau. i am wanting to buy a brand new grill but i dont want the new grill to have the red diamond at the top with the chevy sign. so i guess my question is are all the grills interchangeable or will this leave a gap on the front where the chevy sign was at. it seems to come to a point at the middle top and that is what i am worried about.

 

[LS6 Tommy]

If memory serves me correctly you need a Malibu Classic grill. They had a "laydown" hood ornament instead of a grille badge. BTW, if you had an 81 grill on your 78, then you had an 81 header panel, too. The grills from those two years don't interchange.

Tommy

 

[Anonymous]

there is no hood ornament on the header panel.

 

[LS6 Tommy]

there is no hood ornament on the header panel.

Maybe an 81 Malibu Classic Grille in a 81 Malibu header panel? I'm not 100% sure of how GM sorted them out. My 80 Classic grille has nothing on it but the Header panel had the "stand up" ornament. I replaced the ornament with an NOS flat badge that goes in the same spot because I think hood ornaments don't look right with cowl hoods.

Tommy

 

[79izfine]

heres original 79 set up

 

[79izfine]

heres an 80 set up

 

[79izfine]

81 set up

 

[79izfine]

78 set up the grille looks different than the 79 in appearence only

 

[Anonymous]

will the 81 grill go on a 78 header panel and not look weird?

 

[LS6 Tommy]

will the 81 grill go on a 78 header panel and not look weird?

Nope. 78-79 use one header, 80-81 use another & 82+ use yet another.

Tommy