Dusterdenovo
Contentedly Old School
I recently installed a stock shroud (P/N 2998325) on my Champion 22" 3 row radiator (CC526). To achieve the best fit possible, it took a fair bit of trimming and massaging. Thought I would share my approach for others thinking of doing the same:
Step 1 was to cut the shroud into 2 pieces. This made it simple to install and remove the shroud on the car without touching any of the other components such as fan, clutch, hoses etc. It also made the process of trim / check / remove / trim / check / remove etc. totally easy as there was a lot of that! My plan also included narrowing the whole shroud by 1/4" to fit "in between" the vertical frame pieces on the rad, so this was eventually cut out of the middle as well.
I used my little oscillating trimmer tool for making my cuts. It went through the material nicely and kept my cuts pretty accurate.
Then, working with 1 side at a time I trimmed down the 4 mounting ears on the shroud so it would then slip in front of the rad frame (on which the shroud is supposed to be mounted from the back side but leaves big gaps) and rest against the core of the rad and make a better seal. This picture shows the before (top piece) and after on this step:
Throughout this job, I was careful to only remove as much material as needed so the parts would fit somewhat snugly together, without any extra movement or slop. As a result, I had the pieces in and out of the car more times then I can remember before getting it just right. Patience was key.
After massaging each shroud half so that they would fit onto the rad as wide apart as possible and clear all of the little lumps and bumps on the rad, I did a final trim where the 2 halves met in the middle and fabbed up 2 little joiner plates to hold it all together.
On the rad flanges themselves, I used an M-6 bolt as a puller to remove the 4 threaded inserts that were just in the way. The remaining holes lined up nicely with the holes in the shroud and I then used some body work fasteners to secure the shroud in place.
This picture is a good look at how the shroud fits to the rad, and also the slot that needed to be cut into the passenger side of the shroud to fit over the aluminum angle to achieve the maximum shroud width possible between the 2 rad flanges. This approach also put the fan at a good depth in the shroud.
The finished product:
Step 1 was to cut the shroud into 2 pieces. This made it simple to install and remove the shroud on the car without touching any of the other components such as fan, clutch, hoses etc. It also made the process of trim / check / remove / trim / check / remove etc. totally easy as there was a lot of that! My plan also included narrowing the whole shroud by 1/4" to fit "in between" the vertical frame pieces on the rad, so this was eventually cut out of the middle as well.
I used my little oscillating trimmer tool for making my cuts. It went through the material nicely and kept my cuts pretty accurate.
Then, working with 1 side at a time I trimmed down the 4 mounting ears on the shroud so it would then slip in front of the rad frame (on which the shroud is supposed to be mounted from the back side but leaves big gaps) and rest against the core of the rad and make a better seal. This picture shows the before (top piece) and after on this step:
Throughout this job, I was careful to only remove as much material as needed so the parts would fit somewhat snugly together, without any extra movement or slop. As a result, I had the pieces in and out of the car more times then I can remember before getting it just right. Patience was key.
After massaging each shroud half so that they would fit onto the rad as wide apart as possible and clear all of the little lumps and bumps on the rad, I did a final trim where the 2 halves met in the middle and fabbed up 2 little joiner plates to hold it all together.
On the rad flanges themselves, I used an M-6 bolt as a puller to remove the 4 threaded inserts that were just in the way. The remaining holes lined up nicely with the holes in the shroud and I then used some body work fasteners to secure the shroud in place.
This picture is a good look at how the shroud fits to the rad, and also the slot that needed to be cut into the passenger side of the shroud to fit over the aluminum angle to achieve the maximum shroud width possible between the 2 rad flanges. This approach also put the fan at a good depth in the shroud.
The finished product:
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