The Previous Owner (we truly are running out of things to blame on him) painted the grill black. We don't know why this happened and we are sure there were "reasons". It had some bent bits at the top and because there was nothing to plug the oval speaker hole behind it you could see right through to the wiring under the dash.
For a whole 27 dollars American ($10 plus shipping) I was able to get a replacement in rather good condition. (Thank you Ebay and Milt [the seller])
The oval hole (radio speaker hole) was covered with a small piece of black vinyl (left over from a poker table build) and 8 little clips. The small “puckering” (could be a word) is unnoticeable through the grill.
In the end we have an upgraded "Original" Radio Grill that hides everything behind it. We know we will never place a radio in the dash and have a solution for this to come...
Update: We ultimately did add a radio of sorts. You can read about it on the Radio Mod page.