I agree. I just checked two of my cars and they both have the grill mounted in the upper hole. There is a nut welded on the back of the upper hole, but not on the lower hole. What does yours look like Zed?

Just checked mine – it is as Mike describes. The grill mounts to the top hole, which has a welded captive nut. The bottom hole is empty.

Maybe if you could take a side profile shot of the center brace and how it is in relation to the surrounding supports we could tell if it's been tweaked in a fender bender or something (somehow?)

I think it also could have been a lack of a metric screw, that could have made the PO bend it and use the lower hole, when i got my car the grille was mounted with wrong screw in a smaller size in the uppe hole:ermm:.

Chris

pieces of the puzzle are unraveling...

THanks for the warning, my old air dam would not clear the ramps without a 'preramp'.

I think I have some 'negotiating to do with my center support. Pics with the details asked for are coming. I do believe that I have a tweaked center support.

I may need to tweak it back down.

I took these this morning. I think that the center support has been bent upwards a tad. THe bottom has indications that a load has been applied from the bottom. Go figure what it was.

I have decided that I do not want to risk bending this back. It could weaken the spot welds holding it on. I have some stainless sheet metal in my garage. I am going to fabricate a plate to connect the center support to the front air dam.

Its a bandaid I know but it will work satisfactorily for the time being.

If it were me, I'd try to un-bend the bracket. If you bent it back down until the grill mount was correct, at least you'd be pretty confident that the valance mount is in the correct spot. If you build a plate the valance mount location is only a guess. Those spot welds are stronger than you might think.

On a related note, now that I've seen the original instructions and that Carl explained preloading the back edge to use the holes in the radiator support, I checked my spook to see if I could move it enough to use the radiator support holes. As I had feared, I originally mounted mine about 10mm (3/8") too far forward. But after pulling the spook off and checking, I was able to re-mount it farther back and use the proper mounting holes without much hassle. Slotted a few holes and all is well.

Don't know that it looks any different, but I'm happier knowing that it is mounted correctly.

Well I am looking at it, and there is no easy way to unbend it. The center support is basically a small angle cut piece of channel iron. And the moment of inertia is way against me. I think it will take a SUBSTANTIAL amount of force to move it.

If the car was raised from the bottom of the radiator core support and was bent upward, or more likely run up a curb by a PO forcing it upward and possibly back a bit, the best way to fix it would be with a spreader bar or jack to carefully spread & force it back into position. The bracket may be fine where it is. Take a vertical measurement of your radiator core support from point A & point B of your choice and then let us know where you measured from and note the measurement. Then we can compare with our cars. This way we will be able to pinpoint where your problem is and come up with the correct dimensions you should have and the best way to correct it. That's what I would do.

Edited May 10, 200915 yr by geezer
added illustration

WILL do...I have to do some mothers day stuff for my wonderful wife, but I will get you a picture today.

I still have not measured any of my gaps, save one. I held a tape measure from the front of the center valance where it meets the side valance and measured up to the corner of the hood. It was 17 inches almost exactly. I still have some adjustment left as well.

By comparing measurements of the rad core support, you should be able to easily determine if yours has been forced upwards or not. The measurement you took from the center valance to the corner of the hood is not very helpful. They are just sheet metal parts that are hung on the shell and measurements will vary from car to car. The rad core support was jig welded precisely in position as an integral part of the shell. This is a consistant, solid base point for measurements to solve your problem.

In this pic, I came up with a measurement of 16 7/16". This part came from a '73 but is the same as yours when measured from the points shown in the pic. Hope this helps you to get a handle on the problem.

Okay, geezer, I can totally do that. I will make sure I am in 16 7/16" range. Was that measurement consistent across the opening.