The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk 57 GMC grille and radiator support questions

Howdy, after a spending the last couple of years working on my cab I've finally been able to move onto the front end of my truck. Couple of questions:

I have always been confused as to why I have never been able to find pictures of other trucks with the same grille that I have. The 57 GMC grille should only have one upright in the middle, mine has two located on the outer sides as can be seen here: Grille that I have . and this is What it should be I think.
I then noticed that there are two holes in the center of the grille on the bottom and top. So my new theory is that this is a Chevy grille but with the center two uprights removed. Would this be a correct assumption? If that is the case then I guess I need to start looking for a new grille that is the GMC version along with the upper chrome trim.

Next, I know another one of the big differences between Chevy and GMC is the radiator support. The GMC version mounts to the front cross-member in the center of the support with a u-bolt. My question is, shouldn't there be another bracket that goes over the top of the radiator support that ties the two sides together? This is the only piece my truck had when I got it: Radiator support 1 and Radiator Support 2 The engineer in me tells me that having any and all twist/flex/stress of the front clip being transmitted directly through the radiator is not the smartest design. So what pieces am I missing? If anybody has pictures of their support bracket I would love to see them.

Thanks for the help!

Yes, thats part of a 55/56 Chevrolet Grille...

Mike B

You are missing the crossover piece for the radiator surround. Nice big channel. It has a pop up bracket on it for the center front hood spring. There are side baffles and crossover pieces for the hood latch and grille bar. The baffles are curved to meet the hood contour and they are above the triangular "baffles" in your pic. These final baffles have a rubber pieces to "seal" against the hood. Show any other pieces you have.
Cody: Got your message about lower ubolt/spring mount. I have that assy and am trying to find pic of install.

I'm about 99.9% sure that this is all I have, with the exception of the driver side fender, doing patch work on it now. That's all the truck had when I got it.
If you could take some pictures I would love to see them. It is hard to search for parts when I don't know what they look like. Doing some searching around on ebay I found a GMC hood latch panel Pic01 Pic02. The seller says that it is off of a 56 GMC truck. Would this be one of the pieces I am missing and is it the same as what would be on a 57?
Bartamos, I think I may have figured out that assembly. U-bolt goes down through the support bracket, then rubber shim, cross-member, springs, washer and lock nut. If that's not correct let me know.
What really stinks is that the Chevy assembly manual shows every piece on the whole vehicle, except for this one area where it is different on GMC.

Here is what it looks like. Many 55-57 GMC's have been changed to Chevy front/rad support parts so be careful when you are buying parts.

http://en.visonerv.com/cgi-bin/md/M11725/s24.pl
http://en.visonerv.com/cgi-bin/md/M11725/s25.pl
http://en.visonerv.com/cgi-bin/md/M11725/s33.pl

Look in the gallery, find 55-57 GMC members and ask for pics of ubolt rad mount and front support/baffle pics. A very similar ubolt/spring isolation is used in 47-55.1 GMC.

Thanks for those pictures bartamos. I will ask around and look into getting those parts. I'd like to attempt at locating them before I go the chevy route. I guess I will also look into getting a GMC master parts catalog as well.

Try to find a complete GMC to at least look at in person. There are parts you can't see in my pics, that you need. Look for one for sale near you and take pics and notes. Good luck. I'll watch for parts around here. Put wanted ad here in Stovebolt.