Model A w/32 Shell

A while back I bought a new Walker rad for my 31 coupe project. I was planning to run a original 32 shell. After I bought all this stuff I found out that the 32 rad is too tall for the support rods and they look ridiculas when installed. So before I go and buy ANOTHER expensive Walker rad and hack two inches off the bottom of my original shell, CAN I go without the support rods??? Yes, No, Maybe? Im running a 59A and have my upper hoses strongly attached to hold everything in place. Is that good enough to hold? Think they will shake too much?
The shell sits a tad above the cowl but I'm not running a hood and I think the look suits my 40's era build. (except for the chrome hoses) Here are some pictures,

 

You need a shorter radiator.

 

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Yep, I agree. Radiator and grill shell need to be al little lower than the firewall. There are also some manufacturers that make a shorter grill. You, for sure, don't want anything higher than the firewall. You absolutely need support rods!

 

You'll need the rod supports. Hate to see your hose come apart while driving........

 

figured so, just had to check. thanks fellas!

 

Hey I'm building close to an identical car to yours.... 30 ford coupe on 32 rails with a 32 grill. Now I had a thread I started talking about this problem. And I came down to this conclusion based on the others answers :

28 and 29s need to be shortened around 2 inches.

39 and 31s on the other hand can be ran either way, either chopped down around an inch or so, or full height 32.

I don't know if there's something wrong with your setup because when I jus installed mine, my grill shell doesn't sit over the firewall.....

Bagged chevy

 

I don't know if the 30-31 are that much different but i had to cut my shell about 2 inches on my 28 with a walker

 

I think Brookville makes a shorter shell and insert. I had one on my '31 pu.

 

I've done a couple of 30/31 roadsters on deuce rails and both times used a shortened 2 inchs Walker radiator. Also cut the sides of the shell 2 inchs. If your nervous about cutting the original shell get a Vintique.

 

Although if flys in the face of common wisdom, when we put together my Son's rpu there was just no way to put any support rods on the radiator. They would have been such a weird shape to go around the tripower and would have been so close to the intake that we just decided to leave them off.

You can grab the grille shell and try to move it back or forward and it will not move because the upper radiator hose is so stiff that it acts as a support. So far he has a few thousand miles on the car with no issues, and even when going down the road the grille shell doesn't seem to move at all in any direction.

I'm not suggesting this is a perfect way to go, but just to interject into the original question that it can be done if it is the only choice you have. We thought about running short supports down to the engine, but his motor torques over hard when he gets on it, so that would have been worse than no supports at all.

Don

 

See post #9 above. This is what I did and it works fine. You don't have to shorten (section) the shell, just notch the lower part of the sides of the shell so that it fits correctly.

 

I screwed an L-shaped bracket on the underside of the original rod mounting location and then attached the rods there, approximately 2" lower than before. Works fine with a 30-31 with full length radiator, but once you mount a hood top you realize the radiator needs approximately 1.5" taken out. A recore will run you $400 easy. Walker sells the radiators to your specification at little or no extra cost, but will not change them after the fact. Been there, done that...

 

I bent a piece of 1/8" steel to the shape of the upper rad support mount.

it was long enough to drop down below the level of the mount.

With an extra set of holes for the support rods, so they sat level.

This worked fine and looked a lot better than having them run uphill.

But at some point I decided to weld the front crossmember lower beween the front framerails to move the rad and grilleshell down to line up better with the cowl.

 

the modelA Ford stainless polished shell is the only proper look on an A


the 32 shell looks to heavy IMO

 

Thank you for sharing that with us. I never realized that.............nor did the thousands of other guys who happen to like them on model T's and Model A's.

Don

 

Walker makes a 1" shorter and a 2" shorter radiator. Dale's Mfg makes a 2.5" chopped insert.

The grille shell in the picture was chopped 2.5" and is being used with a Walker 2" shorter radiator.

 

I bought a 2" short 32 rad from Walker for my 29 AV8, you will need less than 2" short for 30/31. I took 1-3/4 out of my 32 shell to fit and it all works very well.

 

I bought a '32 radiator with a 2" chop for my coupe because I plan on running a '32 shell and knew it would need to be cut down to line up with the cowl. The location of the support rods on the '32 radiator seems to be way high even with the shorter core. I first thought that I would run bent support rods like so many others but after reading metalshapes post, I may check out the addition of an angle bkt. or even a flat plate to lower the front of support rods???
P.S. The shell has not yet been cut down in the pic's...
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