The metal bar where the headlight relays are attached is rusted really badly on my 76. Is this the header bar? I have found a replacement header bar (metal) for $75. Is this a difficult piece to replace without taking the body off? If I read the diagram correctly, it looks like the headlights mount to this bar as well, so I was thinking that if its rotten, I am asking for trouble when I go to adjust the headlights. Any pointers, experiences, etc.?

 

When I did mine I had the grills, radiator, fan shroud and hood off. I bought an after market piece for my 69, the metal is thinner than the original. The fit was not that good either. Bent it and matched it to the form on the underside of the nose with out a problem. The PITA part is separating the fiberglass piece that is riveted to it from the body. It’s bonded with a rubbery type adhesive that is hard to separate. I heated a putty knife and kept working on it, pry away an area and stick a shim in (I used tapered wood shims for shimming house doors and windows). Clean off the goo with lacquer thinner. Drilled out the old rivets and replaced with stainless steel rivets. I bolted up my head light housings loosely so every thing would line up. Put a bead of urethane on the contact area. Held it there with wood braces from the bottom of the grill shell until it cured.

 

I did similar to Phil - yeah they are like all aftermarket parts:
not quite what they used to be. However, the new part is still
far better than rotted swiss cheese.

The 76 is only glued up in place ... no rivets after 72 I believe.

To glue it back up, you can go with an expensive 2-part flexible
epoxy adhesive (3M make some good stuff) or a cheaper 1-part
urethane adhesive. I went with urethane.

Don't forget that you will likely need the two end brackets, too.
While you have the headlights out, inspect the reinforcement
that holds the front of the headlights and the front bumper.
I cleaned mine up OK - but you need to remove the front bumper (can of worms).

Here's a couple pics. Oh yeah - easiest done upsidedown,
but getting the nose off and on is not recommended.

http://NHvette.com/ftp/_pictures/vet...nosedone_1.jpg
http://NHvette.com/ftp/_pictures/vet...nosedone_2.jpg

 

I went around the block with this for months, when replacing in my 70. Found out waaay more about it then I needed to know.

They did stop riveting the steel header bar to the bonding strip at some point.(not sure when) With new adhesive technology, the riveting was not necessary. This also eliminated the problem of the "tell tale bumps," on the paint surface from the rivet heads lifting. There's several scenarios to the fix.

The first is the easiest, if the piece is rivited.You can cut or grind the rivets from the underside and the steel piece will fall off, leaving the bonding strip. This method works out because your alignment for the replacement piece is the bonding strip. Just make sure the bonding strip is securely attached.

Second.(probobly the worst case).If you need to replace the bonding strip, things become a little more interesting. The pliable adhesive from the factory is quite strong. You will need to CAREFULLY scrape/sand and "#!*@##", it off. Be very careful not to damage the fiberglass. You also need to have a reference for attaching the new bonding strip/header. This is critical for the headlights align in their openings. You will get a little help here with the small brackets that attach the end of the header bar to the front inner fenders. The slotted holes will allow you to adjust somewhat, but that's not always a good thing.

Lastly, if the header is bonded to the strip you need to remove just like the previous step. I'm not sure if a bonding strip was still used when GM stops attaching the piece with rivets.

As far as installing, Other than being careful aligning the piece, it's pretty straight forward. I used Norton structural adhesive. It comes in several working time. The adhesive is reasonable, but you need their special cartridge gun. Not so reasonable. Try to borrow one.

I removed everything up front. (forward of the radiator support)

 

Thanks very much for the info, especially the pics. It took me a second to figure out why your radiator support was tilted backward. At this point, both of my grills are missing, and I will wait to put them in until this is done. On the advice of NHVette, I haven't attempted to completely remove my headlights yet, but it looks like this is going to happen now, anway. I will take a very careful look at the car when I get home tonight and see what needs to be replaced. My only regret is that I didn't do this before putting in the new radiator support, radiator and shroud. Will these need to come back out for this job? Two steps back to make one step forward!

 

i just completed my header bar on my 72. my car is apart for a frame off on my 72 you could get bar out with the radiator support in . it took me 3 hrs to get my bar and bonding strip out. that is with the car on a lift and the radiator out. my bar was in good shape but the paint was comeing off it and i thought it was in worse shape than it looked.
if i were you i would check it very good for rust thru before attempting to repl/remove it. if it is solid i would just clean it up and use something like por15 on it. when i reinstalled it i used the andhesive made by 3m because i did not want to chance doing it over. the 3m stuff is expensive 28.00 a tube and it took 1 1/4 tubes to do it. you probaly will need to remove the radiator to remove yours so you can get to the back side of it to get it loose from the body. here is a link to my previous thread. http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...919&forum_id=3 wilson.

 

Wills,

I just went out to look at mine and there is no question that my header has had a go-round with the ugly stick. It's full of rust holes, especially where the headlight vacuum relays mount, but there are also many holes in other places. I'm afraid that it's beyond the POR-15 stage. I am happy to see (and hear) that I don't have to take the radiator out to get at it. On the other hand, I also discovered that the reason one of my actuators doesn't hold vacuum is that the bottom is rusted so badly that there are holes in it. Looks like the headlight/grill area is going to take a bit more time than I originally thought. Still, I would rather do all the jobs right the first time than have to keep coming back.