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Finally happened.

K5Jimmy

K5Jimmy

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Location
Lake Dardanelle/Logan Co, Ark
I drive 1 mile on I40 to go to town. Got behind a pickup with a lowboy for a minute, saw it hit a bump and some piece of metal came from under passenger side and I got whacked.

I have no clue what I can do to minimize out of pocket. May be time for a low rise cowl hood. I know nothing about the bent piece other than it's probably solid gold and the entire truck will need to be dismantled to replace it.

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The bent piece is the top of the radiator support. I believe that on that body style, the top piece unbolts from the rest of the radiator support. You will probably have to remove the bumper, and unbolt the fenders to move them out far enough to remove that part.
 
Imo, with some patience I think the upper plate / tie bar on the core support can be straightened, it doesn’t appear to have any nasty creases in it.
 
500$k5 said:
The bent piece is the top of the radiator support. I believe that on that body style, the top piece unbolts from the rest of the radiator support. You will probably have to remove the bumper, and unbolt the fenders to move them out far enough to remove that part.
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That is not correct after 1981. That top piece is a permanent part of the core support.
 
Not the end of the world. A bit of work unbolting and bolting back up, but, very doable. In a day even, if you had parts sitting and waiting.
 
The hardest part is probably getting those pesky body mount bolts out under the core support.
I've seen a couple of them have to be torched out. Your truck doesn't look too rusty, but, you never know...
 
When I went back together with my core support, I wire-wheeled all the bolts to get the rust gone. Then grabbed a can of red axle grease, dipped the snout of each bolt in it, just a little dab-l-do-ya. Then install. I used a 3/8ths drive air ratchet and a wobbly-socket with a 3 inch extension. A 4 inch Philips screw driver as an alignment tool to pull the bolt holes into place.
 
Those front core support bolts are typically rusted halfway through and need to be replaced anyway. But, I think you could probably straighten the core support without replacing it. Then bolt on a new or good used bezel.
 
kennyw said:
Those front core support bolts are typically rusted halfway through and need to be replaced anyway. But, I think you could probably straighten the core support without replacing it. Then bolt on a new or good used bezel.
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I'm so done with crudy bent up rusty sheetmetal. I still have floors to weld up in mine, but, that stuff up front? Just replace it all and be done with it. If you're on a budget, shop around at the picknpull.
 
BoondocK5 said:
I'm so done with crudy bent up rusty sheetmetal. I still have floors to weld up in mine, but, that stuff up front? Just replace it all and be done with it. If you're on a budget, shop around at the picknpull.
Click to expand...
A good body man can fix that and you would never know it was ever damaged. Finding one of those these days is the issue. Looking at the pic, it looks like it could be 95% there in 15 minutes though.
 
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