From: Michael Spreadbury 

On Mon, 12 Jun 1995, Jon Savell wrote:

> > > AAAAAAAAAAARRRRGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!! heresy or not......does anyone have an 
> idea for a custom grille, beit the custom datsun grille, australian, or 
> japanese model; or ANY other brand that will work?

OK, Here is a description of the Datsun 510 grills that came stock on US 
and Japanese market Bluebirds.

1968- The 68 grill is pretty uncommon, it is unique to this year and had 
a different design, that looks a little more dated. The headlight 
bezels that are a bit longer than later years, they have a bend in them 
that makes a smooth transition into the center grill section. The 
individual bars on the grill are flatter than later years. It is accented 
with black paint to make the individual bars stand out. In the center is 
a long, rectangular DATSUN badge highlighted in red.

1969- The 69 model got a new grill. The headlight bezels were changed, 
and ended around the highbeam headlight. The center part of the grill is 
unpainted stainless steel, with rounder bars. The grill is highlighted 
with two larger bars in the center. In the center of the grill is a 
rectangular D (for Datsun) badge which does not look very sporty (but is 
easily removed.) This is an easy grill to find and looks ok.

1970-73 The "standard 9 bar" 510 grill comes in two styles. The 2 door 
was equipped with a grill that had bars 1,2, and 8,9 in polished 
stainless, with the center section,(bars 3-7) painted a graphite color.

The 4 door and wagons came with the same grill except that bar 5 is also 
stainless, and the painted section seem to be black.

Both cars came with a red, white and blue DATSUN badge with the standard 
Datsun racing stripes on it. (some may call them BRE stripes, but Datsun 
"encouraged" them on all their early race cars, but that is a different 
subject.

OK before all of you say "but I have a so and so grill in my car, Don't 
forget that these cars have been around awhile, I always change my grill 
to a 4 door version on my car.

Now there are some variations for other markets.

The SSS grill- the SSS grill was not officially imported into the United 
States, but there are many examples to be seen. The difference between 
the SSS grill and the standard is a raised section in the middle of the 
grill. It also has 11 bars instead of 9. The center bars are smaller, and 
can be painted or unpainted, depending on the model it is issued to. I 
just talked to a guy who ordered a new grill from his Nissan parts 
department and got a SSS grill, two of his friends ran down and ordered 
the same part number and got standard grills...

The `73' grill- the Japanese 1973 domestic market cars got a new grill. 
It is made of plastic and is highlighted in silver paint. It kind of 
looks like a combination of a 610 sedan and a 620 pickup grill. Very 
rare.  There is a good photo of this grill on the cover of the January 
1985 UFO reports.

The Austrailian market was offered the same grills as the US, so you will 
not find any special grills there.

The Jetta headlight/ Ford Escort grill combo is pretty ugly, and when I 
had a Jetta I hated the headlights for their poor output of light, they 
must be awful upside down.

I have seen the BMW kidneys mounted on the 510 grill, but why would anyone 
want to do that???

If you MUST have something different, go to your local wrecking yard and 
see what they have laying around, you might find something that suits 
your needs. But I believe that you will be hard pressed to beat the 
original Datsun design, its simple, classy, and says "510"

Michael Spreadbury
Corvallis, Oregon