408 Build Thread
Well, I guess I spoke to soon! I brought the radiator into the house today and laid it flat on my kitchen table, and surprisingly it laid flat no twist to it at all.
The problem arose when I went to mock up the shroud and fans. There is a bracket welded to each side of the radiator that the shroud bolts up to. The driver's side is fine and both of the holes lined up perfect. The problem is on the passenger side. The bracket seems to be bent out about 1/4 inch and only one of the holes has been drilled in the bracket. It's kind of hard to see in the picture below, but the left holes line up fine, the lower right hole is close but no cigar, and the upper right hole is non existent and the bracket is too far out to line up anyway.
Ledfoot Racing where the radiator was purchased referred me to the manufacturer, and of course no one was there to answer my call, so I left a message. There are a couple of ways that this can be resolved. I can get a sliding bar clamp and try to pull the right side bracket where it needs to be without bending the left side bracket. Or I can mount the fans directly to the radiator using the universal plastic zip tie thingy's that they included for some reason. This defeats the purpose of paying extra for the fan shroud though.
Before you scream return it for a replacement, this radiator/shroud/fans combo was bought new/used from a member here who went a different direction with his build. He bought it over a year ago, and I have had it sitting in my garage for almost a year, so the manufacturer probably isn't going to help out much. I think I can make it work, I just need to figure out how to bend the aluminum bracket in 1/4 inch without busting the welds or destroying the radiator. Isn't custom hot rodding great?!?!
Well, I guess I spoke to soon! I brought the radiator into the house today and laid it flat on my kitchen table, and surprisingly it laid flat no twist to it at all.
The problem arose when I went to mock up the shroud and fans. There is a bracket welded to each side of the radiator that the shroud bolts up to. The driver's side is fine and both of the holes lined up perfect. The problem is on the passenger side. The bracket seems to be bent out about 1/4 inch and only one of the holes has been drilled in the bracket. It's kind of hard to see in the picture below, but the left holes line up fine, the lower right hole is close but no cigar, and the upper right hole is non existent and the bracket is too far out to line up anyway.
Ledfoot Racing where the radiator was purchased referred me to the manufacturer, and of course no one was there to answer my call, so I left a message. There are a couple of ways that this can be resolved. I can get a sliding bar clamp and try to pull the right side bracket where it needs to be without bending the left side bracket. Or I can mount the fans directly to the radiator using the universal plastic zip tie thingy's that they included for some reason. This defeats the purpose of paying extra for the fan shroud though.
Before you scream return it for a replacement, this radiator/shroud/fans combo was bought new/used from a member here who went a different direction with his build. He bought it over a year ago, and I have had it sitting in my garage for almost a year, so the manufacturer probably isn't going to help out much. I think I can make it work, I just need to figure out how to bend the aluminum bracket in 1/4 inch without busting the welds or destroying the radiator. Isn't custom hot rodding great?!?!