Using a 70 core support in a 68

[54belair]

In the past Ive seen several members ask if they could swap the early/late core supports. Ive been curious myself since I bought a 70 core support to use as parts for my 68 support.

This weekend I got to the point of stripping the support with the intention of cutting out the rust below the battery box and welding in stel cut from the later model support. Well, the rust was a little worse than I thought (who da guessed that?!!), so I looked over the later support closely.

Turns out they are basically the same stamping--dimensions are the same and almost every hole is the same--EXCEPT, the later support does not have the 6 weld nuts for the splash pan (along the front lower lip) and the later support has additional headlight buckets spot welded onto the support.

Cut to the chase---the cores are interchangeable IF you weld in 6 nuts on the front lip for the splash pan And remove the spotted on headlight buckets----You will also have to add three holes to the support for headlight placement.

Not a difficult job. but plan on aprox. 6 hours fabbing.

If you can measure accurately and can do a little welding its not a bad job.


I have included some pics (even though they arent the best, they should show whats required to make the later madel suport fit on a 67/68.

First 3 pics show headlight cans and front lip of 68 core support.

In the next post Ill show the later support a where weld nuts will be added

[54belair]

these pics show the "add on" head light bucket of the later model core. These are held on by 6 spot welds--very easy to knock them loose.
Along the lower lip of the support you will see 6 indented circles--this is where you will put the weld nuts.

I found the correct location of the nut by measuring my old support, drilling a pilot hole then enlarging that to 5/16. I stuck a 5/16 bolt thru the hole with the nut on it so I could scribe around the nut. The next step is a little labor intensive but I drilled the hole larger then hand filed it square to fit the nuts.
I used the u shaped bracket and the bolt to hold the nut where I wanted it for welding.

The process took about an hour to figure out what I was doing on the first one then about 15 minutes each on the other 5 across the bottom.

So far I havent measured or tackled the hole placement for headlight mounting--but it wont be difficult----

I gave $20. for the later core support and another $3.00 for nuts and it will take me prob. 6 to 8 hours for the conversion (Im slow). I should save anywhere from $75 to $150 by doing this instead of replacing it with a new one or trying to find a used one.

Ill finish out the project soon and show additional pics of the head light can work.

[54belair]

Today I was able to finish the transformation of the 70 core to a 68.

Originally I estimated 6 to 8 hrs of labor. Even though Im old and slow--I finished the work on the headlight area in about an hour. This ended up being about a 4 hour job.

The photos below show that I made a pattern for the holes, drilled and hand filed to the size I needed. Now all I have to do is install the headlight adjusters.

Tomorrow if all goes well Ill sand blast the core, coat it with the silver chassis coat, and a coat of epoxy primer.

All in all, a fairly simple job--making it easier to replace the earlier core support with a later model than to do a lot of rust repair on the old core.

Now, if I could just work some magic on a rusty battery tray!!!!