Help! With cooling

In the current issue of STREET RODDER, there is an article showing how they installed a cross flow radiator in their 49-50 Plymouth RAMROD project car. This got me to thinking about doing the same with our 48 DeSoto. They have a "built" Hot Heads equipped old style Hemi; we have a bone stock 350 horse 440 MoPar. I will agree the cooling needs for their project are more demanding than ours, although we plan on A/C as part of our build.

We have installed a Jim Weimer Mustang II front clip on ours, and that may equal the cooling demands of both projects. I don't know for sure. My question in all of this is what did they do to replace the core support that would normally support the front end sheet metal? As it is, I could see this approach being an advantage for us as the 440 is a lot longer than I envisioned.

We're already looking at a recessed firewall IF I could make it look factory. Moving the radiator ahead would help immensely if we went this route. The only alternative is to go with a new radiator (with tanks on the top & bottom. The down side of that approach is that there would be NO moving the radiator forward (due to the upper tank sitting inside of a tapering hood). That could only mean moving the engine back further. In either case our plan is to go with (puller) electric fan(s).

This is a low buck build, although I planned on purchasing a new radiator from the beginning. Any & all suggestions would be really appreciated.

 

It's been a while since I posted the above & have yet to get any replies. I could wait for the next issue of SR, but I doubt they will show what I need to know. That is How do I mount my front sheet metal if I cut up the stock core support just so I can switch to a cross flow radiator?

Surely someone out there must have come across this issue.