Thread: Radiator that fits model A and 32 Fords

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I am attaching an picture of something that all rodders may find interesting. What you see is a radiator built for my current roadster pickup project. The top and bottom radiator tanks from a 6 cylinder Chrysler product (circa 1980's I think) fit quite nicely in a Model A or 32 Ford grill shell. Since the original 6 cylinder core only had 2 rows of cooling tubes, my rad man installed a new 3 row core. I also reversed the top tank from its stock configuration, and had the original filler neck removed and soldered shut and a new elbow type filler added, as well as repositioning the upper water neck. This rad comes stock with a transmission cooler in the bottom tank. I am not sure if the radiator on a 32 Ford is longer than this or not, but on a properly configured model A, with stock length hood, this 32 shell sets directly on top of the front crossmember, so the rad can not be longer than is currently shown, at the bottom. I have ran 2 other rods set up like this, with small block Chev engines and never experienced cooling problems. Why am I posting this?---because, an aftermarket Walker rad lists at $744 in Ontario, Canada. This setup, with new 3-row core, modified side supports for bolting to the shell, and painted black cost me $325. That is less than half the price I would pay for an aftermarket radiator. I hope this helps anyone out there who is currently building a rod.

Thanks for the tip on the radiator. I would like to ask you how you plan on attaching the radiator and grille shell to the frame?

This picture doesn't show it particularily good, but here is how I attached the rad. I had the man who built the rad solder a strip of brass about 2 1/2" wide x 1/16" thick between the top and bottom tanks on each end of the tanks. This strip sets flush with the core on the side of the rad which faces away from the engine. It extends about 3/4" beyond the core on the side facing the engine. I used some 3" x 1/8" mild steel flat bar, and made a frame which fits inside the 32 grill shell, (hugging the insides of the shell), and welded 2 bolts to the underside of this frame, which extend down through the front model a crossmember through the original holes in the crossmember, allowing me to solidly bolt the frame in place. I then drilled two 1/4" diameter holes through the grill shell and frame on each side where the hood sides would normally lay against the grill shell, and bolted the grill shell to the frame. Then there was enough of a gap between the insides of this welded frame and the outside of the brass strips on the radiator to slide in a peice of 2" x 1/8' flat bar , which I then welded to the frame. I then drilled through the brass strip which is attached to the radiator (2 bolts on each side of rad), then marked through to transfer the holes to the insides of the welded frame. I drilled and tapped these transfered holes and then used 1/4" diameter bolts from the inside to bolt the radiator to the fabricated mild steel frame. This involved an entire weekend of frigging around, but the material cost is only about $15, I can unbolt everything into three seperate peices if I want to (grill shell, radiator, and fabricated frame) and the top of the fabricated frame gives me a great place to mount the 1" square tubing which will run back to the firewall and provide hidden supports for the piano hinge and latches for the hood.