I made some progress on the radiator support mods for the new radiator. I cut the lower stiffener off the donor core support and cleaned up the rusty bits. Then drilled the spot welds and removed the stiffener on the good core support.

https://i.imgur.com/NvYFOKKl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/a3rZqdql.jpg

Then I just started cutting and hacking until it looked about right and tack welded all the pieces together.

https://i.imgur.com/uTmhG6ol.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/SCAvkUFl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/k2LEnyLl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/gP1brMhl.jpg

I started trimming the opening, again using parts from the donor core support. This is as far as I got this weekend. You can see the general size of the opening and how the parts are going to fit together. I am going to trim the lower part off that has all the drilled spot holes and replace with clean metal. Right now it is holding everything together.

https://i.imgur.com/tZrSlS4l.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Ovw5anml.jpg

This week I will finish the engine side welding and hopefully start on the actual radiator mounts and maybe punch all the holes in the lower stiffener to let more air through. Once the holes are punched I will finish all the welding.

Nice job, On all of it, how much did you open it up?

Hey Wayne. It is a little over 2 inches wider and little over 2.5 inches taller. It doesn't seem like much but that is about another 100 square inches of area. That doesn't include some area that will be picked up by the holes in the lower stiffener if I can figure out how to do that.

Scott

Nice, it all adds up and helps!

More radiator support
 

Well the end of the week wasn’t too kind to Camaro work. My son’s car broke down and I spent almost all my free time trouble-shooting electrical gremlins. I had just a little time on Sunday and this evening so I will post up what it have.
The lip is pieced back together and tacked. Then I cut out a filler piece to replace all the holes.

https://i.imgur.com/si4DcIAl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/16DggdXl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/amAlBdol.jpg

I got it all pretty well roughed in tonight and had to stop and clean up my mess.
Front side
https://i.imgur.com/Tw5ZkXul.jpg

Engine side
https://i.imgur.com/pgvbizsl.jpg

I will get it tacked in and drill the dimple holes where the radiator is covered. I could dimple the holes now on the flat part but thought it might make all the edges wavey and slow down the welding. So I guess I will be patient if I have to!!

I had Friday and Monday off and put quite a few hours into the radiator support. It is a tedious job and I didn’t quite finish but all the hard parts are now complete. I finally got the filler pieces all tacked in and dimpled the engine side.

https://i.imgur.com/U5wFyZ9l.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/L4nghqjl.jpg

A lot more time than expected was spent welding and grinding the stiffener channel. It is just so many little pieces and lots of holes that needed to be filled. But I got it all pieced back together and found a way to make the dimples.

https://i.imgur.com/se704R8l.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/yTlJFZgl.jpg
The female die is way bigger than the channel so I just used a piece of aluminum tube with the edges beveled. I didn’t get perfect dimples but they look fine.
https://i.imgur.com/VsfGWdRl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/oQCvfUKl.jpg

I played around with paper templates to figure out the mounting brackets. They ended up really simple and I still need to trim them back a little and clean-up the profile.

https://i.imgur.com/GY03vyGl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/95sXcwzl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/zZjOgajl.jpg

I mounted the radiator with the top brackets only and put all the sheet metal on the car, as well as the headlights to make sure nothing is in the way. It looks like I can move the radiator at least an inch higher. I will probably move it up to have a little more room for the Vintage Air condenser. I also rolled the car outside to blow all the grinding dust off and clean up the garage a little. It was mid 80s today so it was a perfect day to take some “motivational” photos.

https://i.imgur.com/SP54Ctsl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/XRDK4K7l.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/pwwqglsl.jpg

This week I plan to finish up the radiator support and if that gets done move on to the PCM and fusebox install. There are still a bunch of little welds and grinding to get the core support finished.

Very Nice .... I love the attention to detail, reminds me of someone else I know, lol!

80's uh? .... that sure is nice weather to work on the Camaro, I'm jealous!

Michael

Don't be jealous. In a few weeks when you are entering Spring I will be hiding inside to avoid 100 degree Temps.

Looking really good, love all of these pictures.

Core support mods are finished
 

I finally finished up the core support project. I underestimated it a little. There were so many little welds to execute and clean up. I really learned a lot on this thing.
Due to the location of the lower mount I had to build some hidden doublers with captive nuts. I also built a couple doublers for the lower channel and plug welded them in place. The lower mount bolts go in from the engine side and the upper bolts go in from the front side. I also built an angle stiffener for the vertical sides of the opening to make sure it would be strong and stay flat.

https://i.imgur.com/ktvv462l.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/5j1O80ul.jpg

Then just lots of plug welds, spot welds and a few more butt welds. I spend several hours grinding all the welds down and also filled a few stray holes. It will require some bodywork before paint and I may fill a few more holes before it get painted.

https://i.imgur.com/NKjOff6l.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/l1CioQrl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/VU760yjl.jpg

It doesn’t look much different from last week but it is finished this time and I did end up raising it about 7/8" which helped the condenser fit a little better.

https://i.imgur.com/CeI5R0pl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/eZ1hYo9l.jpg

Last thing was to install the condenser. I will need to make some spacers to get that pushed forward to allow more room for the hoses on the right side.

https://i.imgur.com/bFk9mQel.jpg

Bonus photo, this is what is left of the bent and rusty donor core support. Thanks Tony for letting me have that!

https://i.imgur.com/kfsgqQll.jpg

Next week start working on mounting the GMPP fuse box and the engine PCM.