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Old 01-05-2018, 06:08 PM
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pplace pplace is offline
MetalShaper of the Month March 2018, August 2021,November 2023
 
Join Date: Jan 2018
Location: Hector, MN
Posts: 294
Default Radiator / grille opening

Sorry, but I'm going to jump back in time out of sequence from the previous posts. This post will focus on the radiator support and fabricating the front grille opening to blend into the radiator support.

I also added what I did for the headlights as I only have two pictures of what I did as it wasn't anything too complex.

Here is a picture showing the radiator support I built. It mounts both the radiator and A/C condenser.

I also modified and fabricated the front frame horns in order to lower them enough to drop the radiator more vertically centered in the grill opening.

I built and incorporated some horizontal support bars that go from the top of the radiator support back to the cowl side. This was necessary as I had the entire one piece front sheet metal mount to the radiator core support, so I wanted to make sure everything was nice and strong.

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The side view shows the drop that I built into the front frame horns. Also shows the top mounting brackets fro the horizontal support bars and how they attach to the core support.

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Here I've already fabricated up all the small intricate parts and pieces that wrap around the grille opening and end up transitioning to mount around the radiator to the core support.

The A/C lines and fittings top and bottom shoot straight out and exit through the flat vertical pieces at the top and bottom of the opening (holes not drilled yet

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Another view showing how the bottom portion of the grill opening flows from the opening to the radiator.

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This one shows how it transitions to the top of the radiator.


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With the front sheet metal off and looking from the back side you can get a better understanding of what's all going on. What you cant see are three mounting holes on the straight vertical edge pieces. These match up to three mounting holes on the vertical posts of the core support.

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The headlights were french mounted. I slightly modified the opening and bucket in order to mount everything from inside the fender.

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The original headlight trim rings were pot metal, so I found some basic steel rings (I don't recall where I picked them up) A little shrinking / stretching in some areas was necessary in order to get the correct fit and flow to the fender. After that it was as simple as tacking them on and welding the seam all the way around.

I didn't want a "deep" frenched headlight....more so just a clean mount with no visible ring. If I wanted a deeper "sink" I could just add spacers behind the fender flange if needed.

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Last edited by pplace; 01-05-2018 at 07:01 PM.
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