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I installed the shock tower braces with a combination of rivets and welding. I think that they are there until the end of time.... I am still going to cross drill them so they can be tied into the fender frame doubler pad.
Rick's fender braces went on pretty easily. My passenger side one was a problem from day one - Rick and I could never figure out how come. All the other braces fit just fine, including my driver side one.
To get it to fit two of the holes needed to be elongated a bit with a rat-tail file. Simple enough. Both of the pads that fit into the door hinges on both sides needed a tiny bit of grinding to fit down into the hinge base. If the door alignment pins have a flanged nut, you will have to slightly enlarge the big hole on the upper pad so it completely fits over the flange and lets the pad fully seat down onto the hinge base. Again, simple enough.
The backing plate for forward brace pad was a little tricky to install. I end up putting a sheet metal screw into the forward most "rivet" hole so I could clamp on to it with long nose vice grips. That let me get the backing plate in far enough so I could adjust it with a screw driver to get the holes to line up. Having an extra long bolt let everything be pulled together so the other shorter bolt could be installed. Not hard, just took a few minutes to figure out how to do it.
As long as you have left the hinges on the doors they go back in place as easy pie. When getting them back on and aligned, I used some blue painter's tape to hold the door onto the door post. I still have the door locks in the doors and when they latched everything line up perfectly.
Now I can install the fenders and start working on installing the hood and strengthening the radiator support area.
Rick's fender braces went on pretty easily. My passenger side one was a problem from day one - Rick and I could never figure out how come. All the other braces fit just fine, including my driver side one.
To get it to fit two of the holes needed to be elongated a bit with a rat-tail file. Simple enough. Both of the pads that fit into the door hinges on both sides needed a tiny bit of grinding to fit down into the hinge base. If the door alignment pins have a flanged nut, you will have to slightly enlarge the big hole on the upper pad so it completely fits over the flange and lets the pad fully seat down onto the hinge base. Again, simple enough.
The backing plate for forward brace pad was a little tricky to install. I end up putting a sheet metal screw into the forward most "rivet" hole so I could clamp on to it with long nose vice grips. That let me get the backing plate in far enough so I could adjust it with a screw driver to get the holes to line up. Having an extra long bolt let everything be pulled together so the other shorter bolt could be installed. Not hard, just took a few minutes to figure out how to do it.
As long as you have left the hinges on the doors they go back in place as easy pie. When getting them back on and aligned, I used some blue painter's tape to hold the door onto the door post. I still have the door locks in the doors and when they latched everything line up perfectly.
Now I can install the fenders and start working on installing the hood and strengthening the radiator support area.