Need Advice

There's a guy here that put a tubular lower support in if you're interested in something like that. @90sickfox

Talk to him, if you want to go that route, you won't have to worry about it some things.

If you want to go stock, I'll give you what advice I can.

You can buy a core support and cut the lower off and have it welded to your upper below the bumper support brackets.

You could go hillbilly bubba repair on it. You might be surprised how well it can come out. Here goes;

To me it looks mainly like the bottom part of the support got pushed in a bit. Put the old rad back in so you can get some water in the engine. Wrap a chain or strap around the bent parts and tie the other end to a stout tree. Give it some slack, then back up and yank it back into position. Gently at first until you gradually get it where it should be. Other small kinks in parts can be knocked back into place with a hammer or combination hammer / punch. Metal will move. You'll be surprised how in many cases it likes to go back where it came from. Depending on what needs to be moved, wood blocks, bottle jacks and come-a-longs can move things around too. Got nothing to loose in my opinion

Let's start with the reinforcements. Those are where the radiator pads are attached to. It goes all the way up and behind the headlights and are the actual pieces attached to the frame rails. If you buy a new radiator support, you'll get the "face" of the support with the center lower boxed in section. Notice that the pads are attached to a panel on each side that has been spot welded on to the core support.

I don't know of any replacements out there for the reinforcements besides a salvage yard.

When you say the radiator pad brackets are bent, they're really not. It's the support and reinforcements that are bent back. Look in the lower corners, everything behind the face of the support and attached to the frame rails are the supports. Yours are bent quite a bit. Frankly, the face is in better condition than the supports.

One of two ways to fix this. One is like what John mentioned, you could hook up to a solid object and back up. This will help bring it back to the right place. The supports will still be a little bit wrinkled looking.

The other way will take some work. Everything attached to the core support and it's support brackets will need to be taken off. Then you'll have to cut all of the spot welds holding these three panels to the inner fenders and frame rails.

Once the support is off, you'll need to separate the reinforcements away from the main panel. Then you'll need to basically beat them flat and straight again. Once they're nice and straight, you'll weld the supports onto the inner fenders and frame rails, then weld the radiator support onto the reinforcements and inner fenders. With the buckle you have in the reinforcements, it wouldn't be a terrible idea to weld an extra flat piece of metal to them after they have been straightened. This will help regain the strength of the original steel.

Again, i don't know of anyone selling the reinforcements.

This brings up a third option. Find a salvage that has some fox bodies and get the front pieces off of them. Then you'll need to clean up the parts and remove the parts still attached that you won't be using and weld it in.

If you want more help with this, just holler at me.

Davedacarpainter said:

One of two ways to fix this. One is like what John mentioned, you could hook up to a solid object and back up. This will help bring it back to the right place. The supports will still be a little bit wrinkled looking.

Click to expand...

I partly agree with this idea however DO NOT BACK YOUR CAR UP!! The right way to do it is to park the front of your car about 8ft from a sturdy tree. Wrap a comealong around the tree and around your core support. Make sure the wheels are chocked so the car wont move forward. Make sure cable on comealong is parallel to the ground before winching. Begin winching slowly and keep a close eye on the core support so you don't over pull the core support. Keep an eye on your fenders for movement and keep an eye out for metal tearing at your core support (not good but repairable).

I've done this before with great success. I go the extra step and tack weld a puller bracket on the damaged area that I attach the comealong to. I can grind the welds off the bracket and relocate it to other areas if necessary to get the job done.

Well good for you man

Depends if you want it body color or not.

If not, sand it down and put some POR15 on it. That's some good stuff. It'll last as long as it isn't exposed to the sun. If it is, wait till it dries and put a top coat on it. It really seals up the surface it covers.