67/68/69 cuda dilemma
Well I got the hood and hinges off. With the temp brace on the LH side still tacked in to hold the radiator support where it needs to be, I decided to make some bolt on removable temp bracing for both sides instead. This way where its attached nothing is welded to the car to be cut off later, and it gives me access to drill off the cowl so I can sandblast inside there too.
Then my attention turned to the radiator support nutplates. Only 1 out of 4 of them was decent. One was broken clean off, one was barely intact, and 1 had a screw broken off in it. I wanted to repair these to appear stock factory installed. Hopefully how I fixed this problem can help some of you out with the same issue
I had a spare weld on 1/4-20 nutplate, and I broke off the one that was barely hanging on. Then cleaned up and straightened the holes. I used a threaded stud mounted flush to use as a handhold and to keep weld slag out of the threads when welding. I then drilled out the broken screw on the 3rd nutplate, and chased out the hole with a 1/4-20 tap. At least now a radiator can be bolted on now LOL.
Well I got the hood and hinges off. With the temp brace on the LH side still tacked in to hold the radiator support where it needs to be, I decided to make some bolt on removable temp bracing for both sides instead. This way where its attached nothing is welded to the car to be cut off later, and it gives me access to drill off the cowl so I can sandblast inside there too.
Then my attention turned to the radiator support nutplates. Only 1 out of 4 of them was decent. One was broken clean off, one was barely intact, and 1 had a screw broken off in it. I wanted to repair these to appear stock factory installed. Hopefully how I fixed this problem can help some of you out with the same issue
I had a spare weld on 1/4-20 nutplate, and I broke off the one that was barely hanging on. Then cleaned up and straightened the holes. I used a threaded stud mounted flush to use as a handhold and to keep weld slag out of the threads when welding. I then drilled out the broken screw on the 3rd nutplate, and chased out the hole with a 1/4-20 tap. At least now a radiator can be bolted on now LOL.