For early grilles, is bucket depth critical?

[DakarDoug]

Need a new set of grilles for my 1970 2002. Al of the parts stores have one part number that covers all of the early models. On the for sale board, people are asking about bucket depth. What is right here? Also, anyone know where I can get a new set for less than $650?

[Matt_P]

The shallow grills are a 1973 model year only grill, most you will see are the deep grills. The headlight surround is different for both, as well. In 1973, it uses a polished version of the later surround, and prior to that a surround that fills the gap between the deeper grill and headlight is used.

[SteveJ]

1970 should use the deeper surround.

[TobyB]

Well, shallow will work on deep, and vice- versa,

but they look wrong.

And don't go by year, whaddever ya do-

my 69 has shallow buckets,

and the late '72 has deep.

Troll around here- we swap 'em around from time to time...

t

[DukeRimmer]

Not critical. Deep uses a filler, shallow does not. Same front panel(nose panel), same lamps. I'll post pics of fillers and how they're fastened if interested. IMHO new grills are for cars with new paint. Used grills for daily drivers.

[Brandon]

Originally when new, shallow grilles were used on mid-'72 and all '73 round tail light cars. The deep grilles were used on all '67 to mid-'72 1600s and 2002s. Not sure why BMW changed the depth of the grille, but it may have been related to a supplier change or something. Search the archives more info...grille depth has been discussed in length here before.