Knowing that the 56 grilles are being reproduced, if you had an original and a repopped one side by side how do you tell the difference?
Not all grilles had the holes punched for the v8 emblem, correct?
No visible stamping on any of these grilles. I also have an original 55 grille with no visible stamping and I know it is original. So how do you tell?

 

Weigh them, the repro is made in China, weighs less than the originaL

The original chrome grille (B6C-8200-B) had two coats of copper, two coats of chrome. The repro has no copper plating. One coat of chrome is plated onto bare steel.

V8 emblem holes punched out on factory installed grilles only. "Service Part Replacement" (parts sold at the part counter) grille has no emblem holes, cuz not all these trucks came with V8's.

 

Thank you for your response. What year did grilles start getting stamped?

 

I know the 1978/79 fish mouths are stamped, as are the 1973/77's. The 1980 and later plastic grilles have ID numbers, but I dunno about anything prior to 1973.

Too many years have passed by. Mebbe I shoulda attended last years F100 Western Nats and taken a look-see.

edsf100 is asking a similar question in this forum. You know Ed from this ^ show and the swap meets held in Gopherville aka Canyon RV Park.

"Squire" Don was staying here for 5 days, went to SoCal, didn't buy anything except a 90's Ranger hubcap. I stayed home, torn hamstring precluded me from going along.

But we did go to Early Ford, found out 1946/48 Merc car, 1949/56 Merc 1/2 ton truck hubcaps have been repro'd.

 

Same question. I plugged the holes myself.

 

I have an original 56 grille from my panel which had a 223 in it (no emblem) it has numbers stamped under the right
light 5 6 3 and spaced like I've shown.