Junkyard Gold 3

[patmckinneyracing]

Well I was out at the yard again today looking mainly for trim pieces for the Roadrunner project and a few plastic pieces for the malibu. Got all the trim pieces, none of the plastic, but came across some other kick *ss stuff. Found a radiator hold down for a gbody for 20$.

The big thing I found was an aluminum core support out of an 80' 4 door Buick Century Limited with a 3.9L. It was at the top of the stack and as I looked underneath I was surprised to see no rust anywhere on the core support which left me scratching my head. So when I climbed up four cars to get to the stupid thing, there it was polished on top with the raised "A" designation. Paid 80$ for it.

So don't pass up the four doors for those looking for one of these, they may just have it. Anyone know the weight difference between the steel and aluminum supports. This thing is considerably lighter, at least to me.

 

[Blake442]

Good find.

The steel ones weigh 24 lbs, and the aluminum ones weigh 12 lbs.

You'll likely have to do some trimming around the headlight opening area to make it fit, but it's nothing major.

 

[patmckinneyracing]

Thanks for the info Blake.

Anyone ever polished up the top of an aluminum support to make a nice show piece?

 

[Ribbedroof]

RatMalibu over at MalibuRacing did this one...beadblasted and cleares, as I recall.

I found those 78/80 centurys to be the most likely donor for the aluminum supports

 

[patmckinneyracing]

Looks like he used cast aluminum paint instead of polishing. I know I've seen a polished one somewhere but I can't recall where.

 

[Blake442]

I was thinking about polishing mine that I have for the 442, but I decided against it. I was also gonna do the whole thing...

 

[patmckinneyracing]

I thought about doing the whole area around the headlight buckets and any other noticeable pieces of the support, but figured it would be a pain in the a**. Thought I would just do the top to match the cold air system I'm coming up with. I chucked Spectre's muscle car cold air intake, cheap crap.

 

[dogsht]

12 lbs off the nose of the car! Think like when kids stand on the front of your shopping cart. Improves Launch, weight transfer, acceleration traction and handling.

 

[JBreu]

Pat,
that was an awesome find.was it the top support or the whole darn thing?
Blake and Dogshit you have earned your titles and I look forward to your knowledge 🙂

 

[bigjoenvegas]

So what vehicles do they come on? I am headed to a junk yard out of town and I wanna look for some.