Export brace GT500

[charlie D]

I am in the process of reinstalling my export brace. It came off easily but getting it back on is proving a challenge. I have finger tightened the 4 bolts at the firewall and on the right side mount put some nuts on just a couple of turns so the brace would stay on the bolts. The fun comes in on the left side as I can push hard on the brace, but it comes within about 1/8" of slipping on the bolts. I tried using a breaker bar(with some leather to protect the body panel) and that gets it a little closer, but still not enough. Anyone have some tips on how to get this attached? As always, thanks in advance.
Charlie D

[tesgt350]

Your Shock Towers have spread.  You can try jacking up the Car by putting the Jack under one of the lower A-Arms.  That's what we had to do on a Friends Shelby to re-install his.

[SFM6S]

I have put the floor jack underneath the tubular brace and lifted the car enough to allow the brace to be installed.

Joe

[6972boss]

Pretty common. I used a nylon ratchet strap and pulled mine in then put the nuts on the shock towers.

[charlie D]

Got it on yesterday. My shock towers were not spread out, it was the opposite, they were slightly leaning in. Used some padded gloves, a soft lever on the export brace and kept working and pushing until I got it to drop in place. Tried doing the jacking, one side, then the other, but it had no effect. Thanks for the responses.
Charlie D

[6R07mi]

Your Shock Towers have spread.  You can try jacking up the Car by putting the Jack under one of the lower A-Arms.  That's what we had to do on a Friends Shelby to re-install his.

+1
My 66 notchback did the same after some time elapsed with the brace removed while the engine is out.
sat the car on level concrete with level stands and the engine compartment will "settle" if you have time to allow it to sit.

Jim p

[Bob Gaines]

Got it on yesterday. My shock towers were not spread out, it was the opposite, they were slightly leaning in. Used some padded gloves, a soft lever on the export brace and kept working and pushing until I got it to drop in place. Tried doing the jacking, one side, then the other, but it had no effect. Thanks for the responses.
Charlie D

This has been dubbed Big Blockitis by many of us. It typically is caused by the weight of the FE engine causing the shock towers to lean inward. Raising the car up by the center brace underneath will allow the shock towers to relax outward.  When the leaning happens you can reverse it by the use of a porta power (inexpensive at harbor freight) to spread them apart.They should stay there for a couple years at least.  Ideally you shouldn't have to do anything to get the export brace to just drop on . Many restorers use the export brace as a reference tool when building a car to check if the shock towers are indexed correctly and adjust accordingly so that it will just drop on. At the end of the day once the brace is installed the shock towers are indexed properly regardless of how ever you get them that way. A car that's shock towers are not tweaked will have the export brace drop on without any additional work.

[johnsshelby]

A small block is no charm either. I had to use a porta - power and a bottle jack plus a few cuss words so it would fit.

[roddster]

  The cuss words are the most important tool.

[KR500]

  The cuss words are the most important tool. +1. One of my go to tools. It's good therapy.

[1967 eight barrel]

I keep hearing about having to tweek the shock towers to get the brace on... I have never had an issue. It drops right onto the studs and sits against the back top of the cowl evenly.  Is this a problem with snow belt vehicles, high milage vehicles or those that just had the hell driven out of them?

                                                                                                                           -Keith

[shelbydoug]

I keep hearing about having to tweek the shock towers to get the brace on... I have never had an issue. It drops right onto the studs and sits against the back top of the cowl evenly.  Is this a problem with snow belt vehicle, high milage vehicles of those that just had the hell driven out of them?

                                                                                                                           -Keith

I heard remarks to the effect that it seems to be the repros are a little off and the original Fords just drop right on.

[1967 eight barrel]

Well, I am not saying this is the case for all, as I am not aware of how many manufacturers there are for Export braces, but I can confirm Ford drops on, the Drake drops on and another reproduction I tried.  I am not saying some aren't dimenionally incorrect.  When the car was still in bare metal form post blasting the stitch welding was improved upon and the attachment points at the frame rail were also welded and reinforced. The crappy stitch welding and the new bead were ground down so they aren't real obvious. I really wanted to add the reinforcement kit that is offered that looks like the 69- on big block cars, but I saw how much some struggle with getting headers on with them. It takes another 3/8" clearance away. I elected not to use it.

                                                                                    -Keith

[shelbydoug]

Considering that these were just production line cars, there is variation in the boxing of the chassis. I don't know how much they need to be off in order to create a little question but I'd think that most of these cars were just built that way.

You can see that in the variation of how the doors and the fenders fit. I normally need to use a rubber mallet in reinstalling mine and I put it down to the almost spring loaded nature of the brace itself.

Remember. When you read engineering specs on assembly of parts standard temperature is 70F degrees. 10 degrees either way causes quite a bit of metal travel.

[69mach351w]

  The cuss words are the most important tool.

YEP...LOLOL