I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! today saw the front clip removed it came out with ease and didnt look too bad either.

altho there was some more bad body work uncovered
the inner fender panal

2 rusted bolts just cut off

Im taking these to work with me tomorrow Ill use the torch and welder to remove the rusted bolts and weld in some patch panals after I cut out the cancer

 

the rad support bushes are gone to say the least


it boggles my mind the po oviously removed most of the front clip and painted everything it even looks as tho he replaced one subframe bushing but didnt do any patch panals or bushings, ball joint nuthin.... just slaped fiberd fill in rusty holes! it makes no sense

 

I have seen some crazy stuff. Roofing nails blocking brake lines. Spark plugs screwed into the master cylinder. Carriage bolt holding the caliper on. Stuff like that makes me wonder how more people don't die in there wrecks.

 

I hear ya! this front clip came off so easy (only about 30 mins) because half the bolts were missing or standard bolts (not body bolts) were used it looks like I need to get a front clip hardware set!

 

Mine has off the shelf bolts on the bushings. Matter of fact every bolt except body bolts have been replaced by new grade 8 hardware. I once was asked much I have in my car. At the time bolts were on my mine. I said well about 500 in bolts alone. Then I paused and thought about what I just said. Geez I'm out of my mine is all I thought after that.

 

looking good ur on ur way to a good start,yeah my front clip was worse than urs im gonna need to replace everything in the front.good luck with ur build.

 

All the little fasteners, patch panels, and parts add up quickly when you rebuild them right. That alone is the reason many owners do it half assed. But once you do it all correctly you'll have a really nice car that you know is done the right way, and will last for years. Might be upside down in cost, vs. what it can sell for, but it will be a fun process for you guys.

 

Ive been looking at NPD hardware kits seem alot cheaper than off the shelf bolts and so far the most expensive patch panels are the rear quarters (90% for $99 a side) seems inexpensive enough. the interior stuff is what seems to cost alot

Ive cut out the rust and welded a home made patch on the rad support and extracted the broken bolts. I dont have pics yet as I didnt take the camera to the shop. I just need to coat with rust preventative and paint and that will have the rad support and front fender wells done

 

When I was putting mine together I bought bolt kits for less than what I could buy a few fasteners at my local hardware store. The ones I took out were pretty good, but in all the mess in my garage I couldn't find some small pieces and had to replace what I misplaced.
Of course after the car was done and I did a thorough cleanup most of them turned up.

 

I never even considered looking for a bolt kit really. My solid sub frame mounts came with new bolts. The new upper and lower control arms allow the use of regular hardware instead of the bolts that grab the frame. The tubular design lets me get a wrench on both sides. So grabbed a few different lengths from work. Then after I figured out the best size I went and bought what I needed in grade 8. I basically did that everywhere on the car.