Jeepster Roller, Part 12 - "Roller Extra Credit"

Okay, we are really beyond roller now, but progress is fun!

Grill Support continued

A couple of pictures of the finished grill support bolted into the frame.  The pad was tacked into place to cover the hole, and then the welds were smoothed out with a pneumatic sander:

Bolted down.  It will be trimmed later.  

Electric Fan Mount/Shroud

This is in the "Roller Extra Credit" category, but it's definitely related to everything else with the engine and radiator...

The fan came with the large aluminum plate with the fan hole already cut.  I took a lot of careful measurements and marked cuts and bends on the plate for the bottom and sides.  
(the top of the shroud will be modded later after it is fit into the Jeepster)

You can see the layout lines better in this picture.  To fit this big piece into my bender, I also had to remove some extra material on both sides.  (spoiler alert...this causes problems later)

I made all the cuts with my Bosch jig saw with a metal cutting blade.  The Bosch saw is 30 years old, and still works flawlessly.  It was fairly expensive when I bought it, and it isn't a tool that I use often.  But it's a good example of buying a quality tool and keeping it for a long time.   

Making the bends:

Bent:

The width came out very good - it fits the radiator width perfectly.

Then I mounting the spacer that was made earlier.  I line drilled 5 holes in both parts to 3/16".  I just dropped in 10-32 screws for now, but I may use aluminum pop rivets in the future.  

You can also see the ugly missing material so that I could get it to fit into my bender.  This is going to cause an issue soon...

Fan installed and test fit...looks great.  Note that the top edge isn't done yet - just the bottom and sides:

The picture is dark, so it's hard to see the details...but the clearance to the engine is very good:

Flaps

Many shrouds with electric fan have rubber flaps in the corners.  They are simple, but pretty clever:
  • gravity normally holds them closed
  • at low vehicle speeds, when the fan is running, the vacuum from the fan will suck them closed
  • at high vehicle speeds, they blow open and increase cooling capacity.  
Here's an example

I don't have a ton of blockage in my shroud like the example above, but I decided to squeeze four flaps into the corners.  They can't hurt, and will give me the best cooling possible.

Since I had to layout four sets of cuts, I made an accurate paper template:

Template done:

Lines transferred to part:

I used a pneumatic body saw to cut out the holes.  It's not great - I have some work to do with a file!

All flaps holes done:

Unfortunately, the thin metal cracked during sawing because of the extra material that had to be removed.  But there's a pretty easy fix:



I reinforced the corners with some aluminum angles.  They will be pop riveted, screwed or TIG welded into place:


There's still some work to do, but it was a good day!  Everything fits, and looks good.  

Next...mod the top of the shroud and figure out how to secure the top of the radiator.

Odds and Ends

Stone Shield

I installed the stone shield - it goes on easily with 4 bolts.  I have a better looking stone shield in storage, but this one was easily accessible in my shed:

I need to shorten the frame and make new bumper mounts.  The bumper mounts should just be a couple of simple right angle brackets.

I may go ahead and install the bumper for more "Roller Extra Credit", and to help protect my knees.  I'm now up to 5 protective pads on the front of the Jeepster!