Hey guys,

You may have seen my other post, https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1457974,
but i crashed my car and am tryin to fix it myself. I am wondering can i remove the radiator support myself. I've removed every bolt i can see,but the support won't budge. any help is appreciated









Or is it welded??



Oh, this AC line is in the way too. I was wondering where i discharge the system from. One of the blue caps on top? Do you need a special tool?







So come on guys, help me out!!

 

Theres like 50 spot welds you have to drill out.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SkAnK_aSS_BRyAn &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Theres like 50 spot welds you have to drill out.</TD></TR></TABLE>

yea what he said

 

Told you in the other thread man. You'll need a spot weld bit. Last time I counted 36 spot welds. This isn't really a beginners job. You'll need a welder of a friend with one. And then base primer. You'll have to take the car to a shop that deals with air conditioning, Or you could take a screw driver and rap a shop rag around it and depress the bleeder on the low pressure side (the fat ac line). Like a valve stem. But thats not legal.

 

Hey man. I had to do the same thing like 2 years ago when i slammed a PT cruiser in teh *** end at 50. It really is a pain in the ***. word of thumb. if it looks like a spot weld fucken drill it! it'll bite u in the *** later on. just be sure that nothing is all bent like where ur fenders and **** bolt to. just get every thing as strait as possible! later on man.OH PS! U CAN ALSO U A CENTER DRILL to drill out spot welds! works great!

 

right so, i need to drill out 36-50 spot welds? no prob. i mean i got nothin but time on my hands. that part that worries me is that means when i get the new one i need to weld it on 36-50 times? i don't have a welder. might know a friend who could bring one over. would there be a problem welding onto where i just driled out? getting it apart is the easy part, will i be able to put it back together !?!?!

 

To best way to do it is with a spot weld machine. But if you are shy 5-6 grand for one of these then just drill holes on your new support where the old welds would be. Make sure to grind away any primer/paint/rust before you weld the new support on. Also, when you drill out the old spot welds, you should try and not drill through both pieces of metal! You should not have a hole clean through. The inner fender and frame should not have holes in it when you are done if you did it correctly. A spot weld bit will be kind of flat on the end or the cheapo ones you can buy look like tiny hole saws. They are shaped like this to help prevent cutting through both pieces of metal. Also, if you have access to an air chisel, you will be much much better off when you try to separate the rad support from the other structures!

I wish you all the luck in the world. From the looks of it, you have innder fender structure damage as well, and will have to get that all straightened after you cut out your old rad support. A hammer and a dolly should be all you need, but pay attention to any stretch damage in the frame. If you see and indentations that look like a crease between the shock tower and the firewall you will need to get the car to a frame shop to have it straightened. Otherwise, the car will never handle properly again. Damage forward of the shock tower may not be as big a deal. Just measure the distances from the last fender bolt to the first one on both sides, then a cross measurement from last bolt to first on the opposite side to see how far off you are. You can probably even call a frame shop and they may be nice enough to give you the proper measurements. Personally, I like to use the battered up support to pull the frame ends around because if the bite clamp tears the steel (Which it likes to do with the flimsy Jap metal) you dont loose anything since you are going to replace the support anyway.

When you go to re-fit the new rad support, tack it on in a couple places and pre-fit your lights, fenders, and hood. This will help you make sure that everything lines up correctly.

This really isnt a job for a beginner, but if you have any metal experience, you can do a pretty good job if the inner structure isnt too badly bent. Again, be very careful when you inspect the frame and look for creases on the inside and outside part of the box tubing. This will give you an indication how bad off you are to start with...

 

Stop listening to these people..No offense...lol

Here is something all honda owners need to know.

Drill out your spot welds....There are not very many.

When you get the support off and get everything straight hold your new one up to the place it mounts.

If you will notice there are 4 holes in the support that line up with 4 threaded holes on the front. Add 4 bolts with washers. The the top fender bolts will hold it together at the top. You can drill 2 holes at the bottom and add nuts and bolts if you wish. Thats right...you can bolt it on.

It makes it a breeze to remove if you want to remove your motor or whatever.

It is still pretty strong.

I have had mine this way for 3 years with no issues.

 

that's exactly what i am going to do with my del sol
if you don't need to weld it don;t

 

wow, that is a huge sigh of relief, i can just bolt it on??

do you think you could highlight on one of my pictures where i should drill to add the extra bolts?? and what size drill bit, and bolts should i use??

also where can you get one of these spot weld bits? would that just be an Auto Zoen type thing, or more of a Lows/Home Depot thing??


thanx alot guys!!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by The Flying Dutchmen &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">wow, that is a huge sigh of relief, i can just bolt it on??

do you think you could highlight on one of my pictures where i should drill to add the extra bolts?? and what size drill bit, and bolts should i use??

also where can you get one of these spot weld bits? would that just be an Auto Zoen type thing, or more of a Lows/Home Depot thing??


thanx alot guys!!</TD></TR></TABLE>


Here is the 2 main ones on one side.



Will try and get you some of mine 2nite.


Modified by E.Honda at 10:18 AM 12/10/2005

 

So i'm not really sure what are spot welds here and what isn't. think someone else maybe with a little more paint skills than me can help me out?

 

the easiest way to tell where spot welds are is to drill out where the little ~.25" dimples are. then if you don't get them all, you can pull on it and see where it hangs up.

i had to do this dec. 22nd(i think) of last year, had a new rad. support, bumper bar, hood, and a few other things on in a day, right after a small snow storm

take the headlight assemblies and stuff out, makes it easier. if i wanna remove my front end now, i remove the bumper/bar, a few more bolts and it's off. a swap would be so easy right now

 

that bolting in the radiator support is ****. okay for daily driving and whatnot, but if you race, any type, your front end is likely to bend and flex.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by NINE9DC4 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">that bolting in the radiator support is ****. okay for daily driving and whatnot, but if you race, any type, your front end is likely to bend and flex.</TD></TR></TABLE>

What an idiot thing to say....Go away dumb ***. Most race cars dont even have a radiator support. I promise you I will yank one off with spot welds before you will one with big bolts. To malke it easy just get your new support and compare. That way you will see what you need to remove.

 

so it's those round slight depressions in the metal that are the spot welds??

 

Lol, i was just about to tell you to look up this guys thread on his frint end conversion. he tells u how to do everything in it! E. Honda, point him to ur thread would ya?

 

when i crashed my car.. i simply cut off as much of the support with a big saw with one of these $3 blades i bought a home depot. then whatever was too close or welded on i used a grider to clean it up.. bought a new support.. just bolted it on. with the lights fenders etc. then drove to a place to weld it on... im sure u could drive around without welding in on but i can only imagine that would lead to your front end falling off one day. lol

 

No need to re-weld. Just Drill out the existing spot welds and remove your radiator support. Bolt the other in place, add a couple of bolts and nut for added support and your done, call it a day.

I'm speaking from experience!

 

most race cars don't have a radiator support? how come there are honda's hitting 10's in the nhra and they still have the stock front end? if the bolts were so much better how come honda didn't use it in the first place? if it was discovered, why didn't they use it on the cars after? you cant tell me something that's just bolted up will not flex rather than welding it, like how it originally came from the factory. just cuz one dude did it and it became a sticky doesn't mean that it's the best or right way of doing it, dumbass.

 

i work at a body shop and the factory designed the car to have crush zones. thats the reason your cars rad suppt is welded on. if the suppt isnt welded on it may tear the bolts out and the crush zones would not be effective. The reason most of those FULL RACE cars have no rad suppt is bc they are rarely driven on the street. I wouldnt risk my safety or anyones elses bc i didnt want to spend the money to get my car fixed right.

Just my opinion.

 

Why do some race cars seam weld the unit body together? (Drift/Drag/Road)

Using this same logic, 36 spot welds would be more effective at creating a unit -body with adequate torsional stiffness, then 6-8 bolts.

Drag racing FWD frames/unitbodys can probably get away with less cross members (including radiator support) because torsional stiffness is not as important when the car only travels in a straight line.

Even for street use, I would recommend having the radiator support welded in. However, with it bolted in I can't imagine the unit-body stiffness would be any worse then a Del Sol with the targa top.

 

For all the controversy about bolting on the radiator support, i hope these people know that some cars do come from the factory with the radiator support bolted on. However with the invention of the assembly line and robots and mechanical arm can spot weld the 20 or so spots on either side very quickly.

Anyway i just drivin it to school so i went ahead and started drillin those bitches out. got the top half off and started on the bottom.










There is one thing bothering me, if you look at the bottom of the other side...







There is this weld at the bottom. it does look like a spot weld, am i going to be able to drill that out? i don't want to have to buy a grinder for just one weld??

There is no weld on the other side....




so hopefully i can just get all the other ones and then maybe that last one will tear off.

any thoughts guys??

 

i'm thinking if there's nothing on the other side then it's not welded to anything? maybe it's just extra goop or something haha.

 

yeah i think your right, been doin a little more and i don't even think there's anything behind it.

got like 2 welds left on the bottom piece!! alsmost there!!


oh btw, the radiators at the bottom are attached by rubber gromits but the brackest at welded to the radiator mount. how do i get them off and how am i gonna attach them to my new support??