Next on the agenda was getting the radiator fan and shroud bought and/or fabbed and mounted. I bought some .062 thick aluminum sheet as well as a Derale electric fan. The fan could be configured as a pusher or puller fan and seemed a little thick... which may not have been the best choice since I need to conserve as much space as possible to the water pump pulley.
The first task was to go ahead and make the shroud minus the fan to make sure it would all work and fit before I got in too deep. I set the shroud off from the radiator core surface 1 inch to give it room to draw air. The shroud was too big for my small sheet brake so I had to use some steel angles and bar stock & wood 2x4s to make all the bends. I then mounted it in the chassis to check the clearance.
The clearance looked adequate but the fan was designed to mount directly to the radiator with some plastic straps thru the core so the rubber mounting pads created a fairly large offset that I needed to reduce... plus I wanted to mount it using bolts So I took the 4 rubber pads and cut them down so that they would allow the fan to slightly recess (1/8”) into the shroud. I also had to open up the mounting holes to fit the bolts.
I found some weld-on steel floating nutplates that I had laying around and decided to use them since they had a large footprint. I took 4 of them and drilled them with some 1/8” dia holes for attach rivets and used them to fasten the fan to the shroud. Once the holes and nutplates were installed, I mounted the fan then I traced the fan periphery onto the shroud and cut it out to fit.
I ordered a thin rubber sheet from Ebay and went ahead and added some holes with flaps in the corner to better flow while driving while I was at it. Then I roughed up the surface, primed and painted, and then mounted it.
1949 Chevy Panel Truck A Project Journal I'm old but I make up for it by being immature.
