[Greg Reid]

Originally Posted by dataway

Jeez, I forgot the radiator is held by the upper fan guard mount ... yeah that makes more sense.

I'll have to look at my fenders .... but is the fender to core support flange on the fender angled that much?

Look at the pic I posted above. The fender has a downward curve approaching the front that the support is designed to follow. They will match.

[dataway]

Looks like I'll have another project to do tweaking the re-pop core support.

And what are you doing up this late, I thought I was the only one that did that.

[Greg Reid]

Originally Posted by dataway

And what are you doing up this late, I thought I was the only one that did that.

I can't remember the last time I was in bed before 4:30am and haven't slept more than 4 hours in one stretch in years. Comes from years of working weird shifts.
I noticed before that you were online a lot in the wee hours of the night.

[dataway]

Yep ... three days a week I work 9 to 5 .... that's 9pm to 5am Like you've I've been doing it for many years, and like you I don't sleep more than about four hours at a time.

[Greg Reid]

I've worked all over the clock. Even my last dayshift job used to start at 4am and end at 2:30pm, meaning I would get up at about 2:45am... For the last year, I've worked midnights. The job I have now varies in location and shift but I asked to stay on this one because I hate going from night shift to day shift...It really blows your weekend when you don't get up on Saturday until 11am and have to go to bed early on Sunday night to get up early Monday... and besides, on this shift I can get a lot done during the day.

[dataway]

Bringing this thread back to the top. I am now in the process of doing a first fit on the dreaded repop core support. Unbelievable they are selling this piece of shiit as a usable part, it's not even close.

I'm going to start with .... can someone get me the lean angle of the top of the core support? It would require and angle/level of some kind, just set on top of a flat area of the core support top.

And so I am clear .. the bottom rail that takes the mounts IS supposed to be horizontal and the rest of the core support comes off it at an angle. So the problem with these repops is that the bottom rail is manufactured parallel to the top, instead of at the proper angle. I can fix it, about 8-10 welds to drill out ... leave it attached at the front, bend the flange down in the back ... reweld, add metal where necessary.

Also ... do these have to be drilled for the 68 fan guard? There is not one hole that matches up to my 68 metal fan guard. I haven't cut the "Lip" off yet ... but I can already tell there are no bolt holes for the 68 guard.

[dataway]

Here is a scan from page 254 in the 69 Assembly Manual.

I think the 1.890 reference at the top is the difference from vertical for reference points BC and BD if I'm reading the print right. They didn't do angle back then I guess

I added the red lines to replace what I think are reference lines that didn't show up in the crappy copy.

If I had an angle measurement on the top plate I could do the trig and see if this 1.890 is the actual difference between those two points.

I'm not sure if there is an actual stamped or drilled reference point on the repops, or even if there was on the original part.

[craigs69]

This is not the most accurate approach, but I would expect it to be reasonably close. I put a protractor up to the screen over the picture of my OEM core support that I posted in post #11 and it checks at 10 degrees forward lean.

[dataway]

Very interesting. Thank you sir.

I imported the scan from the Assembly Manual into AutoCad, created a vertical line, came off the bottom of the vertical line with another matching the lean in the drawing and got 9 degrees .... so very close.

These pages in the manual appear to be copies of mechanical drawings, so they should be fairly accurate.

That puts me in the ball park, the mounts will flex enough to go plus or minus a couple of degrees.

Update: Just imported a high rez scan into AutoCad and scaled it to match perfectly (meaning for instance 6" shown on drawing, measures 6" in AutoCad) and came up with 9 degrees again ... jeez, can't believe you got that close holding a protractor up to your screen Scaling these manual drawings into AutoCad seems to be a great way to get measurements that aren't listed ... I'd say accurate to about 1/16"

Did anyone else have to drill holes to mount their fan guard?

[craigs69]

Just for kicks, I checked the angle of my core support when I got home from work tonight. Assuming that my car it sitting reasonably level on the concrete floor of my shop and the core support mounts are parallel to the floor, I got a measurement of 9-10 degrees across the top plate..

[dataway]

Thank you ... we now have a consensus ... 9-10 degrees is a settled fact 99% percent of the scientific community agrees.

I think I can clamp that support to my very flat and level welding bench and get it just right. In the drawing above you can certainly see where the repop has gone wrong ... the bottom rail is certainly not parallel to the top plate ... and on the repops it certainly IS.

I can't believe the vendors are selling this piece ... that is a MAJOR flaw, not sure how anyone without a metal shop is even able to use them. I hope there are no other major problems.

Checked the Ames site ... yep, no holes for the fan guard, it just keeps getting better

Shame I can't send this back since I bought it about 20 years ago.

[Sidponcho]

Surprised the mfgr or supplier doesn't chime in here.

[dataway]

Well all the suppliers are using the same part so everyone is in the same boat.

In the next week or so I'm going to modify it and hope that it will work. I'll document everything and post it with pictures.

So far the list for a 68 is:

Remove upper lip
Remove two clips on the front below the top plate
Remove and reweld bottom plate for proper lean
Drill holes to mount the fan guard (no holes at all in repop)
Locate and re-drill holes for AC condensor

[Lando]

I’ll be following along myself, I was also banking on using a repop. Luckily I didn’t junk my old one, I repaired it however wasn’t very happy with how it turned out. Would the 9-10 degree angle be the most important factor in getting front end fitting properly?

[bkmont]

So, from my perspective, the pics of the original support show the top cover plate level and running parallel to the ground when the core support is at the correct forward lean.

[OG68]

So if I remember correctly this piece is intended for a 70 and must be modified for a 68 or 69. My question is, does the original core support for a 70 also lean forward?

[dataway]

Originally Posted by bkmont

So, from my perspective, the pics of the original support show the top cover plate level and running parallel to the ground when the core support is at the correct forward lean.

Yep, the top cover/fan guard, where it holds the rubber upper radiator mounts looks like it should be close to level/horizontal.

Kind of a Jedi mind trick ... I always picture the core support straight up and down with the radiator fitting INTO it ... in reality the radiator is not really IN the core support ... the radiator is straight up and down and offset towards the engine.

[dataway]

Originally Posted by OG68

So if I remember correctly this piece is intended for a 70 and must be modified for a 68 or 69. My question is, does the original core support for a 70 also lean forward?

Good question ... I have no idea. But it's certainly a BIG stretch to call this a 1968 GTO part.

[Greg Reid]

I think it's a 68-70 part.
Yeah, the radiator sits on the core support at the bottom but attaches to the fan shroud at the top, well rear of the forward tilted support.

[alsalp]

For my 68 I used a core support made by Golden Star that I bought from NPD.
I don't know if it was made with the "lean angle" in it but it works fine for me without modification (except for the trimming required up top for 68 car.