I've been having trouble finding a fan shroud that fits my 59 chevy pickup.. Ive ordered one so far and it wasn't wide enough, maybe the radiator that came with the truck wasn't original, but it does look like it. Anyways, the radiator is 24inches wide all the ones I've seen went wide enough. Does anyone know of a good website to help me out thanks.
well the last radiator shroud i had to get i just built it. curently i am not running one on my willys. but i am going to one of these days. i know it far away but best radiator in hays ks built my radiator. depending on what i decide to do i might have them alter my radiaor to have the shroud built in other wise i will probably just build it my self.
maybe you have the heavy duty radiator....they're wider, and there is a factory shroud for them for the six. Might help to post a picture of your radiator, then we could tell you if it's original or not.
I think US Radiator will make you one if you provide the dims. It seems like they had an article in Street Rodder a while back with one on one of their event/road trip cars. http://www.usradiator.com/shrouds.html
Mike, My 55.2 had no shroud either when I bought it from the original owner. I bought the one in the photo below from The Truck Shop in Orange, CA. It fit fine with very minor trimming. I suppose that would NOT be the case if your radiator is not the stock one, but here 'ya go. Hope it helps. Bad cell photo of the spacers I used to get it right: And a link to the catalog for the part: http://www.truckandcarshop.com/trucks47_59/t47_071.html
There was a post on here where a guy made one starting with a new galvanized garbage can and welding a base plate on it,finished product looked pretty good...I made one for my 33 by making a male and female die from 3/4 " plywood and using a porta-power pressed one out of aluminum.
Wow, I never thought I'd be remembered for my garbage can conversions, but here it is. It must work, 'cause I haven't had any overheating concerns without an electric fan. Sometimes it's just easier & more efficient to build something from scratch rather than trying to adapt something to fit. What can you loose, other than a little time & some sheet metal or fiberglass? I get really aggravated when I buy some expensive part & it doesn't quite fit & I spend a lot of time & money trying to fix it. We've all been there.
I made one from two top sections out of a Volvo - think outside the box - check out a local wrecking yard or two
i made my own out of fiberglass...custom fit to my rad and engine placement. fairly easy to do just a lot of finishing work but the results are great!!
The one I have in my '55 came out of a 50 - something Buick, just happened to have it laying around. Some minor trimming was all it took to get it to fit. I made one out of fiberglass for my '33 Plymouth, all you need (other than your fiberglass stuff - cloth, resin, hardener) is a few pieces of plywood. Super easy and you KNOW it will fit. There was a good step- by step tech thread on here somewhere.
In the past, I've had good luck hitting the junkyards when I needed a shroud for stock cars or other projects. Made up some adapter brackets and I was good to go. On the stock cars, I used to make them out of thin aluminum so they wouldn't tend to take out the radiator in a crash. It would need some stiffeners to make it sturdy enough for the street, nothing that a pop rivet gun can't fix. Bob
I made a shroud for mine that has made a big difference. Not all that difficult just took some time letting the fiberglass set up. Here is how I did mine. 1) Cut a piece of thin plywood slighlty larger than the core, making sure to cut a notch to fit around the upper and lower hoses. 2) Cut another piece about 1 inch larger diameter than the fan. 3) Measure the distance from the core to what would cover about 2/3 of the fan blade. 4) Cut 4 blocks of wood as standoffs between the two pieces of plywood taking in consideration the thickness of the plywood to give you the total measurement from step 3. 5) Measure to get the proper position of the fan to the core both horizontally and vertically. 6) Using the plywood and standoffs screw or nail everything together using the measurements from step 5 to position the round plywood piece to the core plywood. 7) Get some fabric with some stretch to it and lay it on the round plywood piece, staple it in the center then staple around the perimiter of the round plywood. Once you have the fabric stapled to the round piece, stretch it down and around the back side of the core sized plywood and staple it all the way around. Now you have your form. 8) Get some fiberglass cloth and resin. Mix a batch of resin and paint it over the fabric form then start laying your fiberglass over the form. Lay up as many layer as you want to build up to a thickness you are comfortable with. 9) Once all the fiberglass is set, drill a starter hole in the round plywood and use a jigsaw to cut around the edge of the plywood to remove it from the shroud. Do the same with the core sized piece of plywood. 10) to make room for the lower hose, I then cut a notch in the shroud and used a plastic drinking cup cut on a diaginal and glassed it to the inside of the shroud to form a "pocket" for the hose to run in. 11) Sand, paint and attach with two pieces of aluminum angle screwed into the shround and core support. I also used some stick on rubber weatherstrip from Home Depot between the shroud and the radiator to seal it and prevent rattles. Here is the shroud before I realized I had to make the pocket for the lower hose. And here it is installed. I cleaned up the edges around the fan opening and painted them so it looks better now than in the photo. <!-- / message --><!-- controls -->
I made a simple shroud from 20 GA sheet and ¾" flat iron strap. The fan is about ¾" from the radiator core, and the rear of the fan blades are just exposed, not buried in the shroud. It has helped mainly at idle in hot (90˚ plus) weather. Definitely worth the trouble.
Hello Dan, I'm thinking on adding a shroud on my 57 chevy truck. I like the one you have, before purchasing i need to check if it fits. Do you have the dimensions of yours? How far is the fan hole from the radiator and what fan dimension it accept? Why did you put spacers? Thank you
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