1969 Grille center section

[6spd68]

Just an observation I've made over the years ...

Much like survivor cars always being green w/green interiors; it seems almost every 69 I see for sale has a dented center section on their grilles.  I'm just curious; how easy is it to dent them?  Personally driving around with a dented center section would bug me to no end.  It would be something that stuck out to me every time I looked at the car; yet I see so many that have a ding.  Biggest thing I don't get is; how can they manage to dent that section, but the hood and bumper remain untouched? 

Kijiji Add picture for reference:

[stripedelete]

Shopping cart.

[Daytona R/T SE]

Pedestrians.

[daveco]

As mentioned, shopping carts.
And the soft aluminum stamping is rather thin.

[myk]

I drove my Charger off of a freeway on ramp and crashed it; that dented the center piece a little...

[Mike DC]

                 
I'm convinced those grille trim pieces came dented from the factory.


Have you ever seen a vintage 1968/69 fender without a dent in the front corner, above the bumper's end?

[Old Moparz]

More often than shopping cart incidents are the calendar models that starve themselves to be skinny. They lean up against the cars & their bones that protrude, unlike the full figure gals with some cushioning, dent the shit out of them like a hailstorm.

[BrianShaughnessy]

Somebody asked this same question years ago...


I'll give the same answer:    Drum brakes. 

[Dino]

I drove my Charger off of a freeway on ramp and crashed it; that dented the center piece a little...

Dude, that's like showing a trailer without ever releasing the movie. Details man, details!   

I put a nice big dent in my I piece when I crashed into a bunch of plywood and mdf sheets that were leaning against the wall in the garage. One fell forward and hit the piece. Doesn't take much to dent it but luckily it didn't take much to fix it either.

[charge69]

Yes, MYK, we would like a little more detail about that freeway incident!

Anyway, this is my original grill and the centerpiece was just given a little elbow grease in polishing and it came out fine.  Funny, my Charger has manual drum brakes and there was no indication of a front-end crash before it was restored. I guess I was just lucky. Here is a decent picture of it post-restoration.

[Cncguy]

I guess this means I'll be converting to disc brakes.

[igozumn]

You ever seen a VW bus that didn't have one (or both) of the rear corners bashed?  Same deal.  Thin metal allllll the way out there.  Plus, people just drove them.