Joy!

 

Still have to test and restore it to working, but some preliminary fitting

show that there's a bit of metal in the way on my quad headlight radiator support.

 

Is the standard procedure to cut that upper down to a fitting size so the center works? I don't see that one part coming out without some weld removal.

With that cut down, rust treated and the two bolt holes drilled in,

should be more substantial than what is stock with the center bracketry installed..

 

Cut away? Dramatic photos?

On mine, I drilled out the upper spot welds on the 85 radiator support.

 

Then removed the entire center support to make room for the cyclops center support

 

 

Then i bolted in the 82 assembly.

Aha!

 

so the center part will come out with the welds drilled out.. just the two or did they hide a few behind the support (conveniently occupied by.. radiator)

 

(I count two in the front..)

 

Drilling out the welds is what my friend suggested, but he was busy making a homebrew leaf mulcher vacuum out of a couple of lawn mowers.

 

..

 

Anyway.

 

How did you approach the grille surgery? I'm thinking install the lamp, remove the cover, study any differences in geometries, mark, measure,

measure, cut thinly as possible and smooth the edges for pivoting.

Ideally using the same grille with just that workable gap.

 

 

Thanks.. I'd rather have this car be OEM weird than random holes in metalwork..

 

Going to document the process if I'm not busy documenting the leaf vacuum build..

 

..

 

-

Just as an aside, I am seriously considering the roo guard. Not just because it looks cool, but we have had a overpopulation of deer around here. Need to study which design bouncem best. Steak's expensive. Deer stew is cheap.

It has been a few year since I did that.

 

I do remember drilling for sure 2 spot welds, and maybe more, but I also used a cutoff wheel on a dremel also, to remove part of the old bracket too.

 

I think i drilled the center two, left the outer 2 welds and then used cutoff wheel to get the metal out.

 

I had the 82 Grill, which i used for a pattern overlay on the 85 honecomb grille, marking the outline witha sharpie, and then i used hacksaw to cut the 85 grille.

 

The 82 Grill cannot be used on the 85 (82 is for 2 headlihgt and 85 is for quad headlight)

 

You can search my older posts and maybe come across some pics.

Not quite having luck sorting the threads out..

 

So it ended up being a slice-n-dice anyway?

 

I figure as much as I can leave of the original center bracket, fit.

(Well, no harm if I treat the cut ends for bog prevention)

 

 

Gotta start my trade-spares box somewhere..