Hey gang..
Well, as most of you know already, I have another C500... Well, I'm getting closer to getting her fired up, but wanted to take care of this beforehand. The lower core support was damaged during shipment, so I've undertaken the task of replacing it. I sold some misc. parts and bought the AMD core support section. Man, it's a nice piece. This is my VERY FIRST attempt at anything to do with body repair.
So, I wired wheeled the support to find the spot welds and then had at it with my grinder. Guess there's more efficient ways of doing this, but it was all the same cool to me. I was able to get the one side freed tonight. I'll mess with the other side soon. I know it looks rather crude. I also took some measurements before the original piece went bye-bye..

With the new AMD support on the ground..

Taken some measurements before it's all off..

Houston, we have separation....

You go AB!

Troy,The grinder is fine to grind the spot welds that you can reach with it. Only grind through the top layer,not both peices. Use a good sharp drill bit to drill the spot welds that you cannot get the grinder into. Only drill through the peice that you are removing. You can duplicate the spot welds,with plug welds. You will have to drill 1/4 inch holes in the new peice in the same spots as the original peice was spot welded. After you gring the welds,you can duplicate the spot welds by dressing them with a small amount of body filler. Before the body filler cures completely,use the eraser of a number two pencil and press it into the filler to recreate the look of the original spot welds. If you have access to a good spot welder,then you would not need to drill and plug weld the piece. It still ticks me off that the crossmember was damaged that day by the guy that supposedly does car shipping for a living,who doesn't know where to put the hook!

Hey Pete.
Thanks for the advice.. I made sure that any grinding didn't go beyond the support crossmember. On this one side, mission accomplished. I'll grind way the residual spot weld on the framerail and core support to make it smooth. I'll attempt the other side today, just got back from church.

Factory piece looks fairly straight in first picture, what was the damage?

Bondo Spot welds...What will they think of next

This coming from a guy who has a Charger with no roof

That was built a dozen years ago,and it's still in one peice!

Finally got the complete unit out and spot welds ground down. Test fitted the new unit and it fits wonderfully. Now I'll wait for my friend to come over with the welder and he can teach me that... I was sort of proud of myself on this one. Felt good to have taken out the old piece and get the new one positioned.

New piece positioned..

Finally..

Looks good Troy! Looks like a nice fitting peice from AMD.

Thanks Pete.. Now I see why everyone loves the AMD products.
I'm going to position the radiator in the car prior to tack-welding it in place, just to make sure clearances at the bottom aren't an issue.

Did a little more today..

1. Drilled out some holes for the plug welding to simulate the spot welds.

2. Passenger side positioned and held in place with some sheetmetal screws. I'll drill out the plug holes in the front later on..

3. Driver's side positioned.