All,

Can any of you tell me the differeces between the original cast Speedster headlight grills vs. the repros that have been on the market for quite a few years.

A budy of mine told me he has a original set of grills he pulled off a car many years ago and he said that the area which the bars meet have more of rounded corners vs. the repros do not have rounded corers where the bars meet.

Any thoughts ?

Thanks
Jim

Jim,
I find that the major difference is the width of the grilles(bars), themselves. The reproduction has thicker, wider bars than the original. Also, the bars on the originals are rectangular from face to back. The bars on the repro's are wider facing out and seem to taper a bit toward the headlight. If you email me with your email address, I'll send you a couple of photos of an original and repro, side by side. They're too large for this forum. Bob

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Bob:

My headlight grills (that came with my car in 1991) have a P.S.P. stamped on the backside of the mounting bracket. I assumed that these are repros. They are in as-new shape.

I suspect that they came from Stoddard, as all the replacement parts that came in the boxes with it did. Any thoughts/ideas on the mfgr of the headlight grills?

thanks,
=rds

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Ron,
I checked all around the originals I have and they have no markings anywhere. They're actually a bit more fragile than the repros as the bars are noticeably thinner.
I don't know about the letters marked on your grilles, but if they are in fact repros, Stoddard was one of the more popular suppliers of reproduction parts before 1991 and as they still are. They most likely came from there. Regards, Bob

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Here are some photos of original head light grills.

Tom Scott