56K warning Lots of pictures! Swapping a '67 Radiator Support into a '66

[66Runt]

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[biggyfan1]

I have a 66 as well and just bought a aluminum radiator for it and thought about going bigger with the radiator but just didnt want to do all the stuff your about to do. This is going to be nice write up. good luck

 

[gbarber]

Runt,
I love this project already. I did this radiator swap a couple months back by hacking into my '66 radiator support and adding a 24" radiator and a Taurus fan. I cheaped out on a Chinese Ebay radiator. For me, this works fine, but you are definately on a better track. Keep up the good work.

 

[spirockp]

Great write up, I can't wait to see more! I like upgrades that are done correctly and this is the correct way.

 

[66Runt]

Slow but steady progress

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[chromedog]

a pretty good substitute for spot weld drills are the brad point type drill bits...3/8 inch work well. you can save wear and tear on the pilot bit portion by first drilling with a small drill bit (1/8 inch or smaller)

 

[66Runt]

The saga continues

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[66Runt]

Getting closer!

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[Tim65GT]

Nice work! I'll be looking foward to some detail shots of how the nut-zerts work. I put a generic Northern aluminum 24" in my '65, but there were a couple areas where a threaded nut in my cut up radiator support would have been great.

 

[chromedog]

nice work sectioning in the passenger side ...just the way i would have done it!

 

[66Runt]

Finally got the radiator support painted

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[gonzothegreat]

nice job

 

[Decurion]

Now I just have to make sure that air can get out of the engine compartment.

How do you plan on doing that? Cowl or teardrop hood? One thing to think of is adding an air dam under the core support area. A friend with a Falcon did that and said his engine ran 5-10* cooler with it. Mine came from a 91 Buick Regal, plus the teardrop hood really lets a lot of heat out. A couple weeks ago I did about a 50 mile round trip in 95* heat, all at highway speeds and it never overheated. The teardrop hood may not fit your style, and a cowl hood may not be in your plans either, but personally I think they work well for letting heat out.

 

[66Runt]

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[TOM B]

NICE WORK 66Runt,,,, Real nice work

 

[dennis112]

I really don't know why I didn't see this thread before, but Very Good job there Scott. We both did things a little differently (I grafted my 65' hood bumper brackets, use a stock type 4 row copper radiator, and treated the battery area a little differently,) but in the end I am sure that his version will work as great as mine has.

I hope that Scott doesn't mind me supporting his work with a few pics of my conversion.

I used both the 65' hood support bracket holes and added the 68' ones too:

My finished product showing the voltage regulator and battery box location:

No one is none the wiser as this mod looks stock, but is much, much better. It only took me a couple of afternoons to swap mine out, do the necessary trimming and filling, and get the car back together afterwards.

The battery box is actually a combination of a 68' tray using the 65' support bracket. If I was going to replace the battery apron, I might have considered using one from a 67/68 which spins the battery 90 degrees and kind of embeds it more into the apron.

By the way Scott, GREAT DOCUMENTATION!!!

 

[66Runt]

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[NasaGT]

Very nice job! Looks fantastic.

 

[c24sc]

Think I just added this to the list of metal work I'm going to do over the winter. Taking out my motor and going to my freshly build 302 roller motor efi. Can't go wrong with the extra cooling of 67 sized radiator.


66 Runt,

Was looking at the cross member support. Was there any problems with that area? Or does it fit just the like 66?

Thanks,
Nate

 

[iskwezm]

Nice work......................but would it have been WAY faster,cheaper and easier to just cut out the 65/66 core support???You would also move the raditor forward and gain about 2.5" of clearance in front of the engine..I cut mine out and had it done and all together in a couple fo hours.