My Blazer has no balls, but copper nuts

[herb101]

playing with a bunch of stuff this weekend...

1) found that my lower steering column bearing (non-tilt) has absolutely no ball bearings in it - none. Is this lower bearing an easy to get item? Auto-Zone type thing or mail order from a resto-house?

2) found copper nuts on my radiator support body mounts. There is a copper nut double-nutted with a steel nut. Is this normal, or did my PO do something weird, or have I discovered alchemy with my Evap-O-Rust soup and created copper by accident?

3) any online resources that show the body bolt for each location? I don't trust the 'as-found' condition on anything on this truck and would like to do my best at putting it back right. It looks like the under-hood sheetmetal uses 5/16" bolts in a short (~1/2") or a long (~1") thread length. The points in question are basically everything that attaches to the fenders and radiator support.

4) I have read of a repair section for the radiator support. My (like most I guess) is rotted in the bottom channel below the battery tray. I would rather section in a repair panel than swap in a whole new support. Any leads on where this repair section can be sourced?

Thanks,
Herb

[FoxHound]

I just finished rebuilding my non-tilt column. Luckily my lower bearing was in ok condition but i tried to replace it anyway. Turns out it wasn't easy to find. Napa auto parts usually has every miscellaneous part i need, but they didn't have it. I don't know about auto-zone but usually Napa seems to be the best auto store around here so my bet is they don't have it either. I do know that LMC sells a lower bearing, and they're pretty good at getting stuff delivered within a week.