Radiator install

This is where the radiator needs to go - there was one in here before....



You can also see in this photo the radiator top mount was "pi$$ed as a f4rt".... not acceptable - you'd spot this kind of misalignment in a finished car - especially with the cowl in such close proximity as a reference point for the eye.

We had another problem to sort out - the lower radiator brackets on this year of 4/4 are like spurs... small, short and not suitable for a larger radiator we plan to use.. looks like another fabrication job.

Having spent time to straighten the top mount, (drill new hole and weld up old hole, grind, sand and paint) we temporarily mounted the radiator to look at alignment.



We cut some lower mounting squares on rubber cotton reels.. as you can see we're a long way away from the cross-head.



For now - a stack of wood helps to make sure it's all in the right place.

A few measurements and cutting of 2inch steel bar gives us the main parts of the brackets - mimicking the later car set-up.





Having mounted these sections of the brackets to the radiator we cut some small anchor plates which will form the mounting plates which will bolt to the cross head - these will also helps us to mark the angle needed on the body of the bracket.



This test fit also tells us that the brackets need a bend in them to get them to align neatly. So over to the vice to get an angled bend into the bar... to get this as clean as possible we use a set of truck sized adjustable's with a bar through the handle - this has given great results when we have used this technique in the past.



this gives us all the parts we need for the final welding...



once they're all welded up the final fit/alignment looks pretty smart... ready to be sent off for powder coating along with a bunch of other parts.







That's looking a lot better - intake and radiator now all fitted - fantastic weekends work.