Thread: Rad, grillshell, and hood support mechanism for model A

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Today I am dismantling the front of my roadster pickup to paint everything. If anyone cares to look, you can see the entire "skeleton" that I fabricated to hold the radiator, 32 grill shell, hood support struts, hood, and piano hinge. The sheet metal work is mostly all 1/8" mild steel plate, and the rad bolts to the inside of it, the grillshell bolts to the outside of it, and the strut rods bolt to the top of it. It took me about 15 minutes to remove the grillshell and rad, and the hood and slider mechanism didn't have to be disturbed. The 2 peices of flat bar at the bottom of the grillshell support are welded to the frame, and my electric fan Y bracket bolts to them at the bottom and to the sheet metal structure at the top. The strut rods are 1" square tube with 1/8" wall. This was very inexpensive to fabricate, but took a lot of time making cardboard patterns and "frigging" with everything to make it all fit right. There are 2 bolts welded to the underside of this sheet metal frame, that fit down thru existing holes in the original crossmember. with nuts on the underside (they clear the leaf spring O.K.) the top of the frame is kept solid by the strut rods which run back to the firewall.

nice engineering went into that....great work! What color are you painting it?...Ive got a Model A highboy coupe Im buildin', and i will be using a one piece hood top secured by Dzus fastners at the four corners, and I bought a core 32 radiator to get the side straps to mount the 32 shell to, and I plan to use a Mustang 4 row radiator with brackets for the 32 straps and top tank brackets grafted to it by a local radiator shop I trust, and use the stock upper struts (firewall to radiator) to hold the top of the radiator and use the stock bolt/spring set up on the frame mount area....I dont see any problem with that...do you?

Nothing wrong with that---its just that a lot of people I have polled don't like dzus fasteners.