core support
 

deceided to fix my car this winter. bought it with some front end damage and I am sick of stuff not lining up as it should. if i can't pull it out with a frame machine, can I weld in a new core support? I mean, I know I can but:

A - will one work from an n/a (going on a turbo)
B - how far back to splice in. my frame rail is slightly tweeked right before the inner fender wells. splice in there?
C - anyone done this and does it all line back up?

My buddy and i replaced the front clip on his '89, any front end from a '85.5+ will work for the turbo, just make sure you swap the lower radiator support (bolts on). You can cut it back pretty much up to the strut towers if need be. Any farther than that and you will need to put it on a frame machine. As to where to splice it, the fender well stays on the car, you can massage it out using a hammer and dolly. You need to drill out the spot welds on the front part of the clip... basically what i am saying is the front clip (frame rail / radiator support) is not part of the fender wells.

If you make precise measurements it will come out good. We made a jig to hold the new clip in place, somehow we still managed to cut one side a little short (not sure how!) so it took some shimming to get the headlights to look right, good thing its a track car :). The hardest part was putting the sawz-all to the frame rail.. seems weird to cut the front end off a perfectly running car.. it goes quick though as the metal is real thin. Another thing is the thin sheet metal can be tough to weld (easy to burn holes in the metal).

thanks Jon, you answered my question perfectly!