When I was disassembling the engine bay on one of my projects last year, I inadvertently destroyed its charcoal canister bracket. This piece is essentially a large sheet metal band clamp that locks tightened by a bolt and a welded-on nut. Over the course of 30 years, the nut and the bolt became one and would not separate. In an effort to force the issue, I ended up twisting the nut-end of bracket off entirely, ruining the part.
Honestly, the bracket was probably too janky looking to bother refinishing, regardless of whether the nut had freed itself. Either way, it was mangled and disintegrated and needed to be replaced. Unfortunately, the factory part is no longer available, and the aftermarket doesn’t reproduce it. That meant, at best, finding a used part to refinish. But what were the odds of finding a clean donor, and at what cost? Instead, why not just remake the damaged part?
Given the options, that’s exactly what I did. After media blasting what was left of it, I found the main support to be in much better condition than the band itself. Using a combination of cutting, rolling, bending, and welding equipment, I made a new part in about an hour from piece of scrap 20-gauge steel. Here’s what I did, step by step.
Process
- Separate the band from the upright bracket by cutting through factory welds with a spot weld cutter.
- Flatten the band section to get dimensions for the new part using a bench vise
- Lay out new part on sheet metal from dimensions obtained with a ruler and a dial caliper. These include center lines for holes to be drilled. Mark cut and bend lines on new material (highlighted with black marker) using a metal scribe.
- Centerpunch all holes to be drilled during the layout step.
- Use snips or a power shear to trim material to correct shape.
- Compare trimmed new blank to original part to confirm accuracy before moving ahead.
- Drill holes in the blank material, confirming the correct diameters from the original part.
- Roll the metal to create the band using a slip roll. Be aware of where the rolled section starts and ends. This part had a flat center section where it gets welded to the upright plus flat tabs on each end.
- Ensure you have consistent bends on both ends of the part.
- Bend the end tabs 90º in the correct direction using a bench brake or a bench vise. The curvature of the band for this part made it easier to simply bend the tabs in a vise.
- With the machine work done, clean the part in preparation for welding. In this case, we started with acid-based Fast Etch to eliminate surface rust on the scrap material used. This was followed with Pre prep solvent to neutralize the acid and remove any oils.
- Confirm the nut and bolt mounting holes align well with before proceeding.
- Center a new nut over the hole in the band. Clamp it to a welding table to ensure it doesn’t move during welding.
- Using a welder (Eastwood MIG 180 welder in this case), tack the new nut to the bracket. Refer to the welder’s instructions for proper setting. Use the thinner material as the reference to avoid blowing through it.
- Position the band in place on its upright mounting bracket, using bolts to secure the two parts during welding.
- Tack weld the band to the bracket through the holes created by drilling out the original spot welds. Use a series of small tacks to fill the holes completely without warping the work.
- Grind flat the welds using a flap disc or other grinder. Touch up any voids that may appear during grinding using additional tack welds if necessary. Regrind as needed until the holes are filled and the grinds are flush with the rest of the material.
The finished part looks about as good as new after cleaning up some ugly welds on the new nut. The whole thing will get a coat of 2K epoxy primer to seal it better from future corrosion. A couple coats of Underhood Black paint will give the new bracket its final finish.
