| 06-20-2012 |
Today I worked some on the inside brace for the grille shell. As I mentioned, I wanted to keep this brace rather than just cut it out but that meant it would need to be moved forward to clear the new condenser. That would be simple enough, but in order to install the grille it must be slid into place over the top of the brace from the inside of the grille shell. This means that the brace also needed to be removable, so that's what I set out to do.
First I made this mock up brace to make completely sure that the real brace would need to be removable. I was able to physically put the grille in place with this temporary brace installed, but it was a very, very tight fit and could possibly cause some scratched paint or bent metal so I decided to make the brace removable. I'm sure if I ever have to remove the grille again I'll be glad I did.
By this time I've been working on projects long enough that I have a small box of scrap metal I've kept from the left overs. It comes in useful for things like this. I dug out another old piece of smaller angle iron and cut it up.
I made two small tabs from the angle iron and measured and drilled a hole, then used some self tapping screws.
The first arm looked like this
After they were both done I needed to find some metal to connect them.
I screwed the parts together and used the brace as a handle for welding the tabs on.
Since the shape of the original bracket was flat on the back and round on the front I didn't have anything to exactly match it. I know it will be 100% hidden from all sides but if I open this thing up in 5,10 or 20 years I don't want to see some hacked together piece of metal and wonder why I didn't do it right the first time. I used part of this old fairing mount I bought for my motorcycle a while back. I found it on craigslist and dad bought it for me in Florida since he was on vacation at the time. He drove and picked it up then brought it all the way back to Tennessee and it turned out to be way too big for my motorcycle so I sold it and bought the smaller one I have on the bike now. This mount came with it and is cut and welded back together so it's just scrap metal.
I cut a relief in the end of the pipe so I could compress it and then cut off the ends to fit inside the tubing.
It pulled a little bit as I welded it. It was so hot outside combined with having to wear the welding jacket I finally got to the point where I was more concerned with getting out of the heat than with finishing this project so I got it welded up and I'm going to wait to grind it smooth and shape it up later.
This is how it will mount now. In my near heat stroke delirium I almost welded the tab on backwards where the screw head would have faced forward, making it impossible to remove it once the grille is in. It is very easy to remove and with the brace out the grille slides in even easier than before and without the hassle of worrying about bending or scratching anything.
