Hi Guys,

I wonder how many of you have looked at parts of your car and thought that they are in a good condition ??
I have taken the body off the chassis to repair a rusted mount issue that i found in the birdcage of my 73 big block and whilst taking out other parts i decided to spruce up the front section with some sand blasting and fresh powder coating to make the old girl look better .
The radiator support bracket looked perfect when i took it out and sent it out for sand blasting , when i got it back it looked like the cheese you see on a Tom and Jerry cartoon .

Have a look for yourselves !!! I tried to find some decent posts on how to go about splitting the two halves to see if it could be salvaged , but only found Stingers post on his repair. Well it eventually came apart . This wasnt put together by a robotic machine , this was done by either an apprentice at his first spot welding exercise trying to impress his journeyman or someone who just went wild with a welder Still it didnt stop me getting it apart for fun !!

I know you can get a new one from the vendors for $300 or so but i dont live in the states so the costs spiral when you add heavy transport costs and import duties so i wanted to see if it was repairable .

Would any one else even bother ? I will try and post some pictures of the process .



John

 

Here's what I would do, so this is just me.

It obviously needs replacement, but if you want to shop around for a decient and low cost replacement, I would get this frame a rust treatment and powdercoat for now. Hey, it will at least help the radiator run cooler.

You might find a used one for a hundred bucks less, but that's probably all you would save. Living where you do doesn't help.

Steve

 

Hi Steve,

You sure are right on that one, nothing comes easy if you have a vette over here

I fabricated all the sections that were rotten , ie the bottom rail and the corners and am busy trying to complete the repairs . I will keep you guys updated with some pictures along the way and some of the finished item .

John

 

I'm impressed that you even got it apart.

 

Hi there ,

Me to

I actually found a double ended spot weld drill and although it was finished by the time I drilled out the welds , I managed to get the two halves separated after about an hour .

The biggest decision after getting it apart was whether to toss it in the scrap bin or persevere and try and repair this . There really wasn't much metal left to work with

Well thanks for reading , keep a look out for the other pictures I will try to post later on , just battling with photobucket and this I pad .

john





E=my 76 ray;1586526647]I'm impressed that you even got it apart.[/QUOTE]

 

Hi Guys,

Just a few follow up pictures of the frame before I got one of my welders to start welding in some replacement panels and closing up the spot welds I located and drilled out to get the radiator support apart

Starting to look like I might win this battle

john

 

Ah....bare metal.
Now you know what ya got.
Lookin good!

 

Hi Again ,

It's starting to look like it might resume life as a radiator support bracket once again

John

 

Beautiful job.

 

Hi Haggisbash,

Thanks for the compliment .
Its almost repaired now , i will post a picture of the finished item soon.

john

 

Hi Guys,

Thought i would share one more photo of the radiator support before i do the final clean and grind before i send it out for powder coating . Just a couple more welds on the right top corner to complete

Tried all the tricks to get the picture i wanted from my photo bucket album sent to the forum but all i get is that its copied , but it never pastes , so i dont know whats gone wrong , anyway after a while i gave up sent it to my files on the laptop and picked it up and posted it from there . Next Pic will be the finished item i hope .

john

 

My company made all of the 1960-1982 radiator supports. The 69-82 supports are very hard to get perfectly straight. They were hand spot welded by a very patient friend of mine. I worked there in maintenance for 34 years, until they closed our plant. They were held in a special welding jig to keep them straight. By the way, GM dictates how many spot welds they want to go on a piece, for strength and safety. Lou.

 

Hi Lou,

Thanks for the information . I did wonder if my over zealous apprentice comment would invoke a response from someone who knew how these were made

I tried to fine out in my AIM manual where the spot welds were positioned but unlike other components it was not shown so i went ahead and tried to locate all the spot welds to get it apart . I also had a 1980 model to reference but the amount of welds and the positions were not really a reference only an indication of the general area .

There is no possible way that these components could ever have been assembled without a jig ! When i eventually broke all the spots and found a few extra seam welds the two pieces sprung out of shape , ie twisted which indicated that due to the pressing of the components they had to be put together in a jig . I would have assumed for a few strategically placed welds to hold the frame in place and square and once that was done i would have imagined it would have been taken out of the jig for all the welds to be completed .

Because i had two halves that were incomplete i had to make individual sections , shape and grind them to fit and then grind to fit each other and once that was done i had to clamp the two parts together to a flat steel bench to start welding so that i didnt weld it together as a twisted frame .

if you consider the volumes of vettes built between those years the company you worked for must have had many jigs and many welders , sadly the pride and workmanship has been taken over by robotic welders or inferior Chinese products .

I love the history behind these cars and you sure can be proud that you played a part in the iconic history of these cars

John

 

Jakvette, Yes it was such a good feeling to see them making C-3, and later C-4 Vette parts at work, and to know that each one was going on a new Vette.
The Corvette is an extremely low production car, so not that many parts were made every month. We only had one set of the two welding jigs to make the supports. That I remember, the first thing was to MIG weld the four tubes at the top of the back "ring". Then the front ring was added and he tack welded it in a few places to hold it's shape. The most critical dimensions are the three holes with weld nuts on each side and the two large bottom weld nuts that hold the support to the front cross member. We also made all of the C-3 outer "dog leg" front bumper braces and the two flat ribbed bird cage panels, in the body, behind the seats. We made a lot of parts for the C-4's. I was told that the radiator support "service parts" as we called them, made good money for the company. Eventually, a company in Canada out bid us on making them and they left our plant in Cleveland, Ohio and went up there. Only a couple of years later Coffmans Corvette, in central Ohio, got the dies and make them now, Except for the 68 only supports. Corvette Central finally made dies and is making the one year only 68 radiator supports. I remember the day that my company, Modern Tool and Die (MTD) was told by GM to scrap all of the old Chevy dies, and they did. Lou.

 

Hi Lou ,

How sad
Imagine what a position you would have been sitting in now if you had managed to get hold of the different tools that your company scrapped?

Thanks for taking time to give me some interesting information , really is magic to hear from guys that were directly involved with making this icon no matter how small the component , they all provided the beautiful end product .

I am sure there are lots of guys out there remembering how they were directly involved in either making tooling for different components or the actual components themselves .

Cheers,

John .
oh by the way the support bracket is almost finished its at the powder coating plant now , i will post a picture later today i think

 

Hi Guys ,

So here it is !!!

Went from this :

To this :

Thanks guys for all the views and all the comments and to lou for his info regarding how these were made in the factory he worked at . Now for the bird cage lower channels

john

 

Looks great. Nice work.

 

I always like it when I see someone perform a "resurrectomy" on an original part, I appreciate the skill involved. Also reminds me of what the re-builders of much older and rarer vehicles have to do as a norm.

 

There ya go! No need to replace that.

Throw it back together and fahgeddabaadit.

 

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all the positives , was quite fun to do and no where near what it would have cost me to fly one over from the States.

i think the spot weld drill was $17 and the metal to repair was about $20 . The drilling out of the welds took about 2 hours and the fabrication and welding and cnc work took in reality about 4 -5 hours and then the powdercoating .

For you guys i would imagine $300 or so is a bargain to get a brand new replacement , but it wasnt really about the money it was about whether it was doable . Plus my costs would have been a great deal higher to get the unit shipped to South Africa .

I hope everyone who followed enjoyed it and will look past a bondo repair when they hit a problem like i did . Thanks for everyones contribution , really spurs you on and makes you believe you can make it happen , and no i am not a metal worker ! I am just an electrician with a fabrication workshop



John