my 1994 silverado

[RCSB91]

Looks good, ive always wanted to find one in that color, may have to paint my single cab that once its done..

 

[Moparmat2000]

Made some more progress on my kiddos car. Wanted to share since some of these ideas on construction can give somebody here ideas on crossmember construction, boxing in notches in frames etc. Radiator support was mangled. It's a 16 gage single z shape stamping. Probably just fine for most chrysler A body cars, and grandma slant sux powered slushbox dart grocery getters. This car will be getting an all polyurethane front end, boxed lower control arms, kyb gas adjust shocks, big block front springs, and a 1&1/4" hollow g tech front sway bar and 225-60R15s.

This being said, from the factory these cars were flexi flyers. The tires were not as aggressive, polyurethane bushings werent a thing back then, the sway bars were the diameter of tootsie rolls. That was cutting edge 50 years ago, but update all that stuff now, and the wet noodle effect gets much worse. Part of this rebuild will address the shortcomings of a 50 year old unibody making it stiff enough to force the upgraded suspension to do its job.

As such I am in the process of making a brand new lower radiator support out of 14 gage or .075" 2x3 boxed steel. This will add a little more weight, but we will be using an aluminum radiator, aluminum intake, aluminum water pump, mini denso starter, and mini denso alternator which should more than make up for the added weight of this. Follow along for ideas on making and boxing in cutouts in crossmembers.

As you can see I figured out where the new crossmember needed to be cut to allow the radiator lower tank to fit and have this part reasonably tucked in. The piece I cut out was able to be turned around, filed down and slipped back in from the side making the inside of the box out of the piece removed. Welding this back in will put strength integrity back into the part you cut it out of, plus it's a perfect fit, and the right thickness.

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[Moparmat2000]

After fabricating and welding on 14 gage end caps to the inner boxing piece while it was outside of the crossmember, I cleaned up the inside, and sprayed the mating surfaces of each piece with etch primer, and then a thin coat of 3M weld thru ll primer, let dry and slid them in place. Note the spaced 1/4" drill holes for rosette welds to further strengthen the joints. On the side where the rosette welds will be, I clamped the pieces together with a thick gage piece of 1&1/2" aluminum square tube underneath it. This is for 2 reasons. One it's to prevent warpage from welding the seams. Two it acts as a heat sink. Note the approximate 1/16" and slightly larger gaps between the pieces. This allows your weld to fully penetrate if your intent is to grind the weld nice and smooth afterwards and add a radius to it. Note in pic #1 I tapped the end cap with a hammer to close the gap prior to welding. Note, the seams that are running across in these pix also have a pretty decent gap to fill. And a chamfered V notch edge ground into them down their length to allow full weld penetration.

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[Moparmat2000]

The end result after welding and grinding is a piece made of 4 separate parts with the same material thickness, that appears as if its 1 piece, and is super strong the V notching, and angle gapping allowing full weld penetration. This allows me to grind the excess weld off making it look like a professional job.

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[Moparmat2000]

And the rest of what I am doing here. I bolted up the radiator we will use, and taped several bondo spreaders under it to set the gap height of the new crossmember to the lower radiator tank so it can be welded to the uprights that will eventually be welded to the frame. Once welded together with the uprights, the excess ends on the uprights will be cut off and radiused. I will fabricate 14 gage end caps from flat sheet and run them through the slip ring roller at work to get the right curvature, then i will weld them in to close out the corners and simulate the original support. Once this is a complete 1 piece assembly it will get welded to the frame.

Note the bubble levels on the uprights. There is also one on the upper radiator support, and one at the rear of the car. The Jack stands under the car are shimmed to make the unibody level with no twist in it. Also note the access holes in the crossmember for the latch support lower bolts. 1" holes will get plastic body plugs in them to help keep water out of this area.

Also using #40 wingnut type draw cleco pins to temp hold the upright pieces , and small pieces of the old radiator lower support together. Clecos are exceedingly cheap, and perfect for clamping pieces together that you cant get access to with a traditional C clamp. About $1.95 each new from www.yardstore.com or www.browntool.com . Sometimes you can find them at www.Boeingstore.com as used surplus as well. Silver is for use with a #40 drill. You can get them in many standard drill sizes. The copper colored ones work with 1/8" drill bits. The spring type button top clecos that use cleco plyers are about $4.50 a dozen new, and cleco plyers are available for about $6 all over the internet.

Remember that welding is kind of a 1 shot deal. Cutting it back apart to fix it is a *****. I take my time with these projects as to not get ahead of myself. I made a lot of improvements on this crossmember over the first one I did on my 67 coupe which is made as similar construction to this. I may be cutting the 67s crossmember back out and redoing it to be a copy of this now. I think when I was doing that one, I got tunnel vision and didnt step back for a couple days, rethink, and regroup. I am doing that this time, and the improvements such as tucking it closer, and how the lower latch support bolts are mounted as opposed to modifying the lower latch brace assembly as I did on my 67 making it a one off piece that's not bolt on interchangable.

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[Moparmat2000]

Last but not least, I need to mock up a puke tank. I always take a tape measure with me and check out other vehicles in the junky on a trip. You never know what you can use off other makes on your projects. Without further Adieu I give you the Hyundai Tiburon V6 puke tank

Tank in pic is a Dorman repop of a Hyundai Tiburon V6 puke tank. RockAuto $2.25 on close out. Bracket is OEM Hyundai Tiburon $5.00 from the dealer. I bought 2 tanks and 2 brackets since I plan on adding one of these onto my 67.

I made a slick little 1" tall riser for the puke tank mounting bracket out of 1" square tube to raise the tank high enough that the puke hose runs nice and straight across. Drilled and tapped it for 1/4-20 Sems bolts. Am still engineering how i want it to bolt up to the framerail with 1/4-20 Sems body bolts. Whichever way I go with this, it needs to appear factory done

Also found out during mock up that the lower horn was gonna be in the way. Easy fix. Drill another mount tab hole and flip the bracket 180° , then loosen the bolt holding the horn to the mount bracket and rotate the horn facing its opening down again. Will weld up the other tab hole. Horns and radiator will be getting painted black before final installation.

Eventually after everything is fixed modded, welded etc in the engine compartment, this thing will be getting pushed outside to be sand blasted and epoxy primered. Better to mock up, drill, weld, cut etc now, than after its painted.

I hope some of you reading all this can find some fabrication ideas to use on your GMT400s or other non GMT projects.

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[Moparmat2000]

This is turning out way better than expected. I am happy I slowed down on this one and give myself a few days after each step to think things out before progressing. I figured out my radiuses pretty scientifically with a roll of tape and a sharpie lol, then whacked the excess 2x3 off, and rounded the ends. I still have to roll some 14 gage ends to weld on it. I made 1" drain holes in the bottom, and cut slots where the uprights weld to the crossmember to allow any moisture to get out. I put 1" holes in the front in the stock location where it mates to the framerails. These are on the OEM lower crossmember as well and are great for applying corrosion prevention compound. These will get covered with rubber body plugs after i paint the outside and CIC is sprayed inside. This thing only adds maybe 7-8 lbs over stock and with other weight reduction on the engine, it really isnt an issue.

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[Moparmat2000]

Who doesnt like dead sexy rounded corners. Heres how I endcapped this with 14 gage sheet steel. First I made a cardboard template to match the radius of the tape roll I used to make the radiused cuts in the tubing. Then i rolled the steel in a slip ring roller at work and cut out the needed squares. I left about 1/16" gap so i could fill the gap with weld as i welded it up, and this would allow me to grind down the welds and grind a radius to blend into the radius of the square tube to make it appear as if it's a single piece of metal. Parts were sandblasted and etch primered.

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[Moparmat2000]

Finally welded, ground down, spot primered. All the mating areas on the framerails were ground to clean pit free steel and sprayed with 3M weld thru ll and temporarily pinned

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[Moparmat2000]

Radiator support side panels have to tie in on the bottom. I made a piece of 90° angle out of 16 gage sheet stock, and made tie in angles to tie it in at the bottom. Then punched holes in them to weld them to the crossmember. All these pix show that many things can be fabricated from sheet stock or tubular stock. And in such a way that they can appear as though they are factory parts.

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