Jeepster Roller, Part 11

Happy Father's Day to everyone!

Grill Center Support...continued

Here are a few more pictures of the Center Grill Support from Part 10 with the isolator installed:



The isolator overhangs the grill, so it needs a clearance cut.



Isolator clearance cut...the Swag-Milwaukee bandsaw is such a great tool - highly recommended!

Installed with clearance for radiator:

Radiator Lower Cradle

A while back, I bought a custom-sized, aluminum, LS swap radiator to fit into the tight Jeepster space.  Unfortunately, it doesn't have any mounting points.  I decided to make a sheet metal cradle for it - kind of a core support, if you want to call it that. 

The cradle will be bolted to angle brackets welded to the frame rails.  I'm using bolts for now, so I can have some adjustment.  Using bolts also allows the cradle to be easily removed and modified (or replaced), if I ever need a new radiator.  I can always weld it together later, if it make sense.  

If I could TIG weld aluminum, then I would do something different, but I think this will work fine.   

My first task is to lock down the radiator location.  Based on a previous test fit, the radiator cap interferes with the hood, and also with the hood support arm located in the hood.  So, the radiator (and radiator support) will be moved down between the frame rails by 1.25".  

I used five 1/4-20 weld studs for the electric fan bracket

Studs welded:

Two spacers were added - these were required to make the steel channel fit the radiator properly:

Another view of the spacer:

I didn't really want to do this yet, but I went ahead and glued on the rubber pads to make for easier test fits. I don't really like relying on the adhesive to keep these pads in place, but it will probably be fine. They will be under a little compression when the radiator is installed, so the adhesive should have very little strain on it.   

Rubber pads glued and clamped in place:

Cradle test fit:

Here's a view from underneath.  The wood block is exactly 1-1/4" tall and will be removed.

Radiator dropped into place and sitting pretty.  There is now good clearance to the hood.

I also had to make sure that the headlights had clearance, as they are very close to the radiator.  
These are very cool Holley "Retrobright" LED headlights.  They are LEDs that are made to look like a classic headlight:

Here's a view of a fugly, aftermarket LED installed by many JKU and JLU owners.  
You won't find these on my Jeepster! 

The back of the Holley 

Clearance is good on both headlights:

I added some isolators on both ends to keep the radiator from moving left and right in the cradle:


Welded into place:


This should hold it pretty well:





No picture, but I drilled two holes in each end, and bolted the cradle to the two angle brackets welded to the frame.  The cradle is now fully installed.

Grill Bracket

Since the lower radiator cradle is right next to the grill, it seems like a logical place to add a support for the center grill.  And for a little better support, I decided to make it longer and also bolt to the front crossmember.  Chase made a mockup out of aluminum to see if we liked it:





We liked it, and did a layout of the part in 3/16" steel.  

At this point, my trusty sidekick took a nap...while I got the part drilled and ready to bend:

My first attempt at bending was not successful - my 20 ton Swag brake could not bend the 12" long, 3/16" steel.  So I made relief cuts at each end to reduce the bend length.

I thought about drilling bend relief holes at the end of each cut, but didn't do that...

The relief cuts worked, except, then the steel broke off 😡.  Oops! 
Lack of bend relief or just bad steel?   

No big deal...I got it back together with (not my best) welds.  

I drilled four holes to mount the bracket to the lower radiator cradle:

The cradle wasn't thick enough for a full countersink of a flathead 5/16-18 bolt, so I just went down a little bit:

Clearance should be okay - the bolts stick up about 1/8", but the rubber pads are 1/4":

Then I got it installed on the Jeepster:


I have more work to do at the crossmember.  I'm going to weld in a steel pad to cover up the large hole:

Filler piece layed out to weld into channel:


Filler piece cut and formed.  And start of pad:

The filler will be welded as shown, and a single bolt will hold everything together.  I'm also going to put a gentle curve into it, so it looks better.  

I'm waiting on Steel-It to dry before I can finish up these pieces.  I'll have the final pictures in the next update.

Odds and Ends

Hood

With the help of my trusty sidekick, I drilled the holes for the hood hinges into the tub, and installed the hood.  I need to add a nut plate inside the tub later - we just used large washers and loose nuts for now.  One more thing knocked off the list.  


Unfortunately, the secondary hood latch was a casualty when I trimmed the grill for the radiator installation. I'm thinking of using some reverse hood pins as a secondary latch.  Maybe in the future!

Creeper!

Chase, thanks for the great Father's Day gift!

Doors

Chase and I re-hung the original doors.  The passenger side fit pretty well:

The driver's door isn't great - it has some body damage and some twist in it.  We didn't try to adjust it out yet.  I've got a couple of spare doors, so I can replace it, if necessary.



Camo Paint

On the driver's door, you may have noticed the horrible camouflage paint from the previous owner.  The entire car used to be like that, but we gently removed most of it with scotchbrite pads.  
Day of Purchase in 2018

It's fun to see the difference in appearance between now and then:
June 2023

Next Step(s)

Three related projects:

Getting the electric fan mounted
Getting the top of the radiator isolated and secure
Getting the shock hoop cross-brace installed - required because it will secure the top of the radiator.