Another build thread? Yep, my track-style T

[J. Robinson]

With the engine mounted, I have moved on to building the radiator and grille shell support. The radiator I am using is an aluminum racing radiator for a Honda Civic. It fits the grille shell with room to spare and has the mounts already on it for a Honda Civic electric fan. After mocking up the radiator at a few different angles and evaluating the pros and cons of each, I decided to push the bottom of it forward almost to the front crossmember and tilt it back slightly so that the radiator cap is accessible without removing the grille shell.

The first step here was to bend a piece of 3/4" OD tubing to fit the shape of the inside of the nose (grille shell). There was no science or elaborate calculations involved here; I just cut a piece of tubing about 10" too long, started at the center, and began bending it a little at a time until I got a hoop with a pretty good fit. Then I wedged it in place between the framerails with the nose mocked up in position and marked where to cut the bottom ends off.

The next step was to fabricate the brackets to bolt this hoop to. I cut two 4" long pieces of old bed rail material (lightweight angle iron) and drilled a hole through the corner edge of each. Then, with the hoop lying flat on the floor, I vise-gripped the brackets in place so I could mark where to drill the bolt holes.

With the brackets now bolted to the hoop, I clamped the assembly in place so I could weld the brackets to the frame. Notice in the picture I had to clamp the bracket 3 directions at once to get the correct angle; to the side, to the front, and to the hoop. Everything was measured multiple times to make sure both sides are the same, the brackets tack-welded in place, clamps removed and nose and radiator checked for fit. Once satisfied, I removed the nose and radiator and welded the brackets solid.