cruiser
Well-Known Member
Good evening fellow Moparites. I write tonight's chapter with a heavy heart after learning of the cowardly attack on the U.S. forces in Kabul that took the lives of thirteen service members; eleven Marines, one Army soldier and one Navy corpsman. It was my great pleasure and honor to serve alongside many Marines during my time in the Navy, and I also worked with a number of superbly talented Navy corpsmen. Thank God for these people outside the wire every day who guard our freedom and way of life. My wife and children sleep soundly at night because of them. My only consolation is the firm belief that our special operators will be soon be visiting the gutless cowards who did this. These murderers are great at gunning down defenseless women, children and civilians. We'll see how well they do when they go up against full grown U.S. Marine Force Recon and Army Rangers. And so we must go on, which brings us to tonight's chapter. Most A bodies have these unequal length metal braces under the hood which connect the firewall to the fenders. Other Mopar platforms do not have these braces, and I'm not sure why some do and some don't. Obviously, they provide structural rigidity to the front end, but their location blocks easy access to the engine and subjects them to a lot of wear and tear. The braces in my 1974 Duster were typically worn and nicked up when I bought the car in 2019. After refurbishing a number of underhood components, these braces started looking a lot worse so it was time to refinish them. Removal was easy - two bolts at either end, which I soaked in Evapo-Rust then cleaned up with Soft Scrub. The two bolts at the front ends were then painted black as was done at the factory. The rear bolts at the firewall are black anodized and left unpainted. Interestingly, when I removed the left brace a curious coat of Y6 Golden Haze Metallic paint was revealed underneath. I then recalled that the car was in a low speed front end accident in 1995 necessitating the replacement of the left fender. Instead of acquiring a new fender from Chrysler, the body shop pulled a used one from a donor car and installed it on mine prior to repainting it. I've enclosed a photo of the mystery Y6 paint I found underneath the left brace. The first photo is of the braces prior to bead blasting. Like all Chrysler products, the factory finish was a single unprimed coat of satin black paint. I then bead blasted both braces and finished them in three coats of Krylon Fusion satin black. When I bead blasted the left brace, I removed the remnants of a bunch of black electrical tape at the front end. The original owner taped two spare keys to the underside of this brace in case he locked himself out of his car. This tape was almost "welded" onto the metal and required a surprising bit of bead blasting to remove. When all was dry, I bolted them back in with my cleaned up fasteners and now they have a factory fresh finish which nicely cleans up my engine compartment. I've also included a photo of a unusual structure on the underside of the hood. Ever wonder what those valleys on the underhood bracing are for? They're actually folding points that allow the hood to collapse upward in a front end collision. Without these, the hood would stay flat and be pushed through the windshield in an accident. Very clever, don't you think? So that's all for tonight's episode. Be sure to check out the accompanying photos and stay tuned for our next installment. And as you close your eyes this evening, think of our armed forces that are up on the wall tonight guarding America with their eyes wide open. For you.
Last edited:
