Radiator shroud from a garbage can

I made my radiator shroud from one of those galvanized garbage cans that you can get at Ace Hardware type stores. The nice thing is that it has the circular curve built in, as well as some beads to give it strength. Making the brackets was a bit challenging, but it turned out real solid. The circle isn't completely closed, as I left a break in the bottom. This let me get a uniform distance from the fan blades. I used some of that flexible plastic door edge moulding to protect the sharp edge that I cut. The other edge had the factory bead from the top of the garbage can.



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You effectivley made one big round area for air to **** through and a big area that the top for it to spill through.

 

Nothing wrong with that, if it pulls enough air to keep it cool at stoplights...

 

SWEET JOB! Man looks like it was made to do that

 

i have an electric fan with a ring around the outside of the fins, it's just in my shop i haven't tried it, if nothing else it's a safer setup.

 

Ha! Brilliant!
Sure, it's not pulling through the WHOLE rad, but it will ***ure that a majority of the radiator is having air pulled through it. If it stays cool, it stays cool.

 

Yeah, I realize that it's a bit of a ****shoot as far as effectiveness goes. Like a lot of other things, I won't know until I start driving the thing in the real world. I mainly did it because the Pennsylvania enhanced inspection circus mandates a fan shroud for protection. I'll be doing that shortly. The whole thing can be easily s****ped or altered if things go awry, cooling wise. The nice part about it is that I still have the rest of the garbage can for a waste can.

 

Good use of available resources to speed along a fabrication task. I think it likely that it will cool well enough. I added a shroud to my '41 pickup, and don't recall it ever overheating since (over ten years). Made a world of difference.

 

Was it a vintage garbage can?

 

good idea! Now fill in the outer areas with some sheetmetal so the air will go through the shroud and only the shroud...

 

Original and clever use of a readily available item adapted for a non intended use, the mark of a true hot rodder. Others may get ideas based on your design. ( I built "map pockets" for the doors in my coupster using cake tins). If, as some say, it might not work well, you have the mindset to make improvements. Nice neat fab work, by the way.

 

looks O.K.

A week or two back a fellow did a tech write up about

this subject and made one with fibergl*** ,then painted it black,

Turned out great ,looked good and worked perfect.....

A little more work ,but better than doing it twice...

Hope it works for ya and DMV.

 

well when i saw the thread ***le i had to look thinking it would look like *** , but i'm pretty impressed looks pretty sanitary ! hope it does the trick for you !

 

Yup, just pointing out one element. Looks pretty good so far though.

 

Good thinkin'. It's always neat to see something built from nothing.

Hopefully, you'll let us all know how it cools now compared to before....

Rich

 

How about a little info on the area thats attached to the radiator, the "brackets"

 

Yes, "Hemi," it IS a vintage garbage can. It kept the very expensive grain for my wife's horse. (I'm glad I don't spend that kind of money on my hobby..ha-ha.) "Killer," yes I have considered retrofitting coverings for the corners. If she runs hot (it's a stock 283), I will have to resort to plan "B." "Wetatt4u," I read with interest the thread about the fibergl*** fan shroud. I considered trying that until I tripped over the garbage can one day. The brackets holding the thing in place are anchored to the vertical radiator stanchions that I had fabricated to hold the radiator. I bent a thick piece of 1" wide strapping to conform to the curvature of the shroud & that travels about 180 degrees around the top part of the shroud. That piece is attached to the brackets that are attached to the stanchions. There are two extra simple brackets for the lower part as well. Truthfully, I was surprised how stable the whole thing is. Thanks for all of the kind words & constructive suggestions, by the way.

 

You could incorporate low speed rubber flaps in the corners like the store bought Walker/Cooling Comp. shrouds.

 

does it work?
than thats all that counts..
it dont look all that bad either

 

One man's trash can is another man's fan shroud.

 

Traditional and thrifty, great work sir. Thank you for sharing and I am going to put that to use on my T!

Thank you again,
Tim

 

Great Job!!Let us know how it works

 

I would say he made one big guard to prevent getting hit by a fan blade.

 

As a true hot rodder, you should have found not just a vintage garbage can but a rusted out vintage garbage can to cut the needed section from. Ideally, you should have found two rusted out vintage garbage cans and cut patch panels from one to fix the other, and then finished the welds so smooth that you could brag about no bondo in it, or, if some filler was needed, you should have used lead.

 

Looks cool.

If the shroud works, it works. If it doesn't it doesn't. Sometimes people overthink things.

 

Mann...this is great!and low buck to boot! and if it functions that will be even better!

 

It wouldn't be as simple as just filling those outer areas, as that would block the airflow to those areas. The air would somehow need to find it's way into the front of the shroud, which would require some modification to the shroud.

Anybody ever take a close look at the fan shrouds on some of the smaller residential air conditioning compressors? They appear to be something that could be easily adapted, and can be had for nothing at your local heating and cooling place. All those guys want to keep is the copper and aluminum.

 

I think Killer was referring to that aspect like I was in my first reply. Tying in the upper and lower areas that are open and directing the air THROUGH the circular shroud part would create the most benefit. But, we went through this years ago on the board and many relate that overheating issues are many times ignition rather than radiator faults. Of course, this guy is doing it to p*** inspection only.

 

I would not worry about the small corner areas, other than the difference in brackets it closely resembles the stock GM one I salvaged off my wifes '63 Impala some years ago.