All Tuxedo Black ’69 Camaros...
All Tuxedo Black ’69 Camaros came with a silver grille. It didn’t matter if the car was a Z/28, RS, SS, or a COPO. Black was the only color that determined the color of the grille on Tony Lucas’s RS COPO 427 triple-black Camaro.
When walking around car shows I used to be oblivious to the two different colors of the ’69 Camaro grille. It was just one of the details I never paid much attention to. When I was out at the Camaro Nationals in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it was brought to my attention that one of the ’10 Camaros I was taking pictures of had a silver grille. One of the guys said that it was much like the darker colored ’69 Camaros. I thought the silver grille in the ’10 was different and looked great, but didn’t think much about the comment of the car color determining the color of the grille.
When I got home I performed my own research, because my brain just won’t shut out details like that. It turns out that the guy was only partially correct.
In 1969, the grille came in 2 colors: black or silver. For the ’69 Camaro, Tuxedo Black is the only body color that determines the color of the grille as silver. Any other body color could have come with a silver grille. The RS, SS, and Z/28 options determined the color of the grille installed on the Camaro from the factory.
Special Thanks to Brian Henderson at Super Car Workshop and Tony Lucas.
| Grille Color |
| Option | RS non-RS |
| SS | black* black* |
| Z-28 | black* silver |
| All other options & all colors* | black* silver |
| Tuxedo Black | silver silver |
| * except Tuxedo Black paint | |
The green Berger RS COPO is...
The green Berger RS COPO is an RS, so it came with a black grille. The blue COPO came with a silver grille because it isn’t an RS, SS, or Z/28.
Every ’69 SS Camaro, except...
Every ’69 SS Camaro, except Tuxedo Black SS’s, had a black grille. This Dusk Blue seen for sale in Carlisle, has the correct color grille for its options.
A detail that is sometimes...
A detail that is sometimes overlooked by some Camaro owners is the area around the grille. It’s supposed to be body color, as seen here on Tony Lucas’s, Jack Douglass 427 Yenko.