Don's 69 Charger Rust Belt restoration

[mopar4don]

I have another grill support. So I used it and formed some new metal over the same tab.
Basically I made a template and used this template to bend the tab to the correct orientation.
Then I welded the edges to stiffen it up

[mopar4don]

Sorry, apparently I didn't get any more pics,
But here it is finished

[mopar4don]

Here is my other grill support, it has problems also! But as long as I'm at it, I might as well fix it to!

[moparnation74]

Great work!

[green69rt]

I missed some posts on the floor, so forgot to mention that there is a small bracket that welds to the underside of the floor that holds the speedo cable off of the exhaust pipes.  They are usually missing but a good thing to have.  Can't find a picture right now.  Maybe someone else can show it....

[fy469rtse]

Don ? Your not going to fix every part are you?
While your at it , put some decent welds on that support , it's one of the reasons our grills suffer and sag,
Flimsy spot welds

[mopar4don]

Don ? Your not going to fix every part are you?
While your at it , put some decent welds on that support , it's one of the reasons our grills suffer and sag,
Flimsy spot welds

fy469, It sure seems like it! (come to think of it, I have pretty much have fixed or tore apart every inch of this car  )
And I have been strengthening it as I go.

[fy469rtse]

great , good to know your looking at everything as you go ,
old cars and not everything was good to start with ,
looking forward to seeing this car get dressed finally , must be cold down to the bare bones all this time
keep posting don , its been an education in perseverance and the inner anatomy of these cars 

[mopar4don]

Ok so I figured I may as well fix this 2nd grill support.

[mopar4don]

The head light buckets have the same issues with the tabs... NO they are worse, they're rusted away.

[mopar4don]

So I used the first bucket (media blasted grey) for a template and bent some metal around it

[mopar4don]

I had to put a relief cut in cause it need to bend in two different directions

[mopar4don]

did some trimming and bending and hammering,

[mopar4don]

Then welded it up

[mopar4don]

Some final trimming and grinding and blending.......
Not to bad

[green69rt]

Sorry, apparently I didn't get any more pics,
But here it is finished

Are they supposed to look all twisty like that??  I have to fix mine and am wondering how they are supposed to look.

[fy469rtse]

i was just thinking that Mitch,
Don , line it up on whats left of front, these go to headlight bucket area , but i think there twisted , going from memory
Geoff

[six-tee-nine]

That might be very well the case....

My support looks pretty much the same as this one. I always wondered if they were bent like that or mine got banged up. Altough my grille was not all that badly smashed up when I took the car apart.
And the bends are almost identical left and right on mine.

I agree on a final testfit before paint to make sure no extra bending is needed, but I'm sure Don wont skip that part.

[mopar4don]

Guys, the mounting tabs are not all nice and square. If you look at the tabs it should be obvious that they are messed up or not.
This is because the tabs themselves have a short lip that is bent at 90 degrees. This added lip gives the tab strength.

[70-500-SE-EXPORT]

Very nice repair.  Your tabs are still twisted though. They are supposed to be vertical.

[mopar4don]

Can you show me a picture of what they should look like?

[mopar4don]

Thought I would share my latest "SCORE"
The steering wheel is in better shape than my original that has the famous 12 o'clock crack! (how else do you describe it?)
This one has some minor cracks on the back side. But should be much easier to fix, or maybe I wont fix it right away!

[stripedelete]

Every grille frame I have has at least one missing or badly mangled mounting tab.
There's probably a market for trim-to-fit replacement mounting tabs for the grille frame.   
Id rather buy one with the correct angle/shape, trim it, and weld it on, rather than fabricate, weld, and get it wrong.

I enjoy the heck out this thread Don.

[mopar4don]

Every grille frame I have has at least one missing or badly mangled mounting tab.
There's probably a market for trim-to-fit replacement mounting tabs for the grille frame.   
Id rather buy one with the correct angle/shape, trim it, and weld it on, rather than fabricate, weld, and get it wrong.

I enjoy the heck out this thread Don.

Thanks stripedelete,
I don't wanna get it wrong either, but I figure if I duplicate what I have, (all twisted) then all I have to do is bend the tabs back, were they need to go. This metal is like .030 thick so it's not real strong.

Like Zig Ziglar said "If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time."

stripdelete, I mean no disrespect to your comments, but for me, and the mountain that is ahead of me (with this car) and because I don't have unlimited resources, I have to learn how to fix things! And yeah, I might mess it up, and yes it takes me a while, but I won't quit, I'll learn and move on and try it again. For me it's a challenge! And I really love doing it! And I have to admit, I did consider finding some good brackets. but like you said they are not readily available... and after being encouraged to fix what I have, I went ahead and did it. And you know, it really wasn't all that bad.

[stripedelete]

Every grille frame I have has at least one missing or badly mangled mounting tab.
There's probably a market for trim-to-fit replacement mounting tabs for the grille frame.  
Id rather buy one with the correct angle/shape, trim it, and weld it on, rather than fabricate, weld, and get it wrong.

I enjoy the heck out this thread Don.

Thanks stripedelete,
I don't wanna get it wrong either, but I figure if I duplicate what I have, (all twisted) then all I have to do is bend the tabs back, were they need to go. This metal is like .030 thick so it's not real strong.

Like Zig Ziglar said "If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time."

stripdelete, I mean no disrespect to your comments, but for me, and the mountain that is ahead of me (with this car) and because I don't have unlimited resources, I have to learn how to fix things! And yeah, I might mess it up, and yes it takes me a while, but I won't quit, I'll learn and move on and try it again. For me it's a challenge! And I really love doing it! And I have to admit, I did consider finding some good brackets. but like you said they are not readily available... and after being encouraged to fix what I have, I went ahead and did it. And you know, it really wasn't all that bad.

I think you misunderstood the comment.  By "market" I meant a guy like you selling them to a guy like me.