EPILOGUE:
Found out why the car has no brace now.... oy.
Previous owner (the body/paint guy who replaced all the rusty panels and painted Fred that
pretty color) had all the front stuff together and painted as well - this is evident by things such
as the vertical grille brace and radiator support being painted on both sides.
One little problem with all that, though...the brace I'm trying to replace now isn't even close to
lining up on the bolt holes.
Why?
I was under there this evening and it quickly dawned on me once I got to studying on it....
turns out, the bottom of the core support is bent, quite severely so - a good inch and a half forward
of where it should be.
Given that everything is all painted and pretty (while being bent up), one conclusion was readily
reached:
That drunken bastard must have somehow lightly wrecked the finished car, like into a ditch or what
have you, enough to bend stuff up under there (including the sway bar mounts!).
Charlie was good at body/paint, but he did love his beer, too - and told stories of their having burnout
contests between the GTX and his own Road Runner many a night outside his house.
Doesn't take much to figure out what must have happened....
Best as I tried with a ratchet strap and other redneck accoutrements, I couldn't straighten it enough
to get the bolts in the thing - so this will be a winter project of stripping out the radiator, etc. and
having at it old school style.
Fred the GTX continues to be a laugh a minute.
