Mystery solved / Problem kinda corrected.
Tim, your close-up picture identified my problem. It looks like the holes for the bolts were not bored correctly. The holes in my mirror bracket reinforcement plate are the same as yours. I assume that the holes for the mirror bolts should have been bored through these holes and into the cowl from the inside. Looks like the holes were probably bored from the outside of the cowl and obviously did not hit the holes on the reinforcement plate. Don't know if it was done at the plant, or if it was done in a previous restoration.
Here is my reinforcement plate
side by side with yours. Looks like the holes in my plate have some type of adhesive or bondo in them, which makes me think that the error was made during a previous restoration. The bottom bolt is under the tab on the top of the panel. Sorry for the small pic.
The piece that I called a "kick panel" is called the "cowl inner panel" in the Assembly Manual.
For the fix ... I cut a sliver of stainless steel less than a mm wide. Super Glued it into the bottom hole so it wouldn't move. Then screwed the lower bolt into the hole with the SS shim. It worked. The bolt is tight.
Thank you to everyone who helped brainstorm my problem. I've said it before, and I'll say it again - - this is a great forum.
- Lonnie
