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7/14/19: Today I discovered a puddle under the engine which lead straight to the water pump. One of the thru bolts that tighten the pump to the relocation plate was weeping. I tried to tighten to no avail. Long story short, I disassembled from the radiator down to the pump and realized that the thru bolts were not sealed. I looked at the instructions and there was no mention of sealing these bolts. It has a direct leak path from the coolant jacket in the block right thru the pump. The plate appeared to be adhered to the pump so I pulled the affected bolts, added silicone to the plate and bolts and reinstalled the fan, belt and radiator. This time I reversed the bolts so the heads were in the water jacket and the nuts were outside. My logic was that it would only have one leak path, under that head of the bolt vs. two, under the nut and thru the threads. I want to wait to add the antifreeze until the silicone is fully cured for 24 hours

I started fixing the hood latch plate where a PO cut and bent back the top edge to allow more clearance for the radiator. Now that the radiator is in its original position, I wanted to fix the the PO’s sins. Finally I was actually getting to do some bodywork, a passion I’ve had since High School. Not being a scholarly student, I elected to go to a tech school for autobody. I spent half a day in tech school and the other half taking the minimum classes that enabled me to get my high school diploma. As career, it didn’t work out, but that’s another story.

I picked up a a piece of railroad track at an estate sale recently and found it perfect for reforming the edge back to the the way it was from the factory. This was the first time that I welded thin sheet steel with a MIG welder, and it went awesome. Forty years ago, the common practice in autobody was to do lap joints and braze the panels on, and that was the technique that I learned. Following advise I found on YouTube and this forum, I used tiny tack welds, spreading them out so the heat would dissipate before returning to that spot. A few try’s at getting the heat and feed settings set and I was off to the races. It was much easier than I thought. After grinding down the welds and a bit of planishing, I applied a light coat of plastic. A bit of sanding, a coat of prime, a bit of Satin Black paint and she was ready to reinstall.