Technical radiator mounting tabs protrude?

Getting down to the nitty gritty on my 33 roadster and have been tweaking the grille she'll for better fit.
Are the corners of these lower mounting tabs (on the radiator) supposed to stick out proud of the grille shell?

 

I would remove that corner if that would help?

 

Yes it’s common

 

As in "supposed to be sticking out like that" leave it, OR cut the corners off as krylon32 says?
The grille shell's lower edges bottom out on them when I put the top 2 hood hinge bold down screws in

 

SDS....no info on whether or not to trim the radiator mount tabs but your "shop" is over the top fancy! Man, even a wrought iron stairway railing to the 2nd floor storage area! Nothing but CLASS!

Lynn

 

it's been 92 degrees and 100% humidity all day - when I tried working in the garage, the sweat drips on bare metal stuff and makes rust almost immediately. Wife gave me the stink eye when she got home.
You know what's great about reclaimed barn-wood kitchen tables? You can't scratch it, only give it more character.

 

I'll bet she did!!

Lynn

 

100 point show car for Pebble Beach?

 

Nope, just want my hood gaps to be reasonable and the grill shell being jacked on the radiator is one root of the problem...When I have the 4 corner screws in, the bottom is nice and even, but the hood hold down screws are way misaligned. When I tweak it to get the top straight, the bottom by those tabs is all whacky. One side sticks out a quarter inch more than the other - not sure what to do. I tweaked the brackets on the radiator in effort to get it straight, but that doesn't fix the problem

 

With a bunch of repro parts from all different sources, you will have to modify and adjust almost everything. It's a hot rod, so you can do whatever you see fit. Some guys would tweak the top of the grille before they tweak the radiator. Some guys would cut the grille sides up instead of trimming the radiator feet off. All decisions you will need to make on your own.

Those feet on an original Ford were kinda covered by the fenders, so nobody worried about them back then. If your frame is pinched a bit near the front crossmember, your issue is even worse than the standard highboy.

 

Agreed, a stack-up of BS chi-com and India parts is certainly a source of my woes.
Because I don't know what I don't know, I'm trying to not make a correction that results in further problems - my painter is picking up the body on Friday.
Some information that would really help me make the right decision on what to do;

1. on a typical 32 Ford front cross-member, are the pads where the radiator mounting tabs sit, flush with the top of the frame rail, or do they sit below the level of the frame rail by 1/4" or so?
2. If you look at the grille shell/radiator assembly from the side, how close is the bottom edge of the grille shell's skirt to the radiator mounting tab? That bottom edge of the grille shell sitting on the frame is what prompted me to figure this out.

Right now, it seems as if the whole grille shell is a parallelogram versus a rectangle - that would explain it looking great with the 4 side screws in, but the top screw holes on top where the hood hold down bracket go being misaligned by 3/16" or so..whey I tweak it to get those 2 screws in, the bottom gets all catawompus - uuugh.

 

The mounting surface is dropped down. The tab sticks out. I show a stock front crossmember. The pic of the mounted parts has a custom crossmember built to stock dimensions. The shell and radiator are stock. I think the fender fits under the shell. I remember twisting the radiator to get it in place. It did not drop straight down. I don't have anything with frnders on now to check.
As a suggestion: I would use extreamly light springs to mount the radiator. The repo springs will tear the radiator apart if you are not running fenders. The fenders add a lot of torsional stiffness to the frame. That is why the are always cracked and always in the same place. The trianglation of the radiator rods hold the top inline with the cowl. If the frame twists, the radiator must lift on one side.

 

Andy’s pic should answer a lot of your questions. But also note the lower edge of the shell above the foot could be longer on your repro grille, so it wouldn’t fit the same as Andy’s example.

 

I could put a shell on a radiator and measure the gap if wanted.

 

Take a grinder to it and round it off and be done with it!!!!!!!!

 

Thanks to Alchemy and all for the info and impetus to just fix it. Got the shell in a good place by tweaking all the tabs on the radiator - then whacked the mounts out of the crossmember with a cut off wheel and made new ones raised up.

 

Still have to fill the gaps under those tabs and drill the new holes the the right spot.
Thoughts on dill/tap that hole to receive the 3/8 radiator bolt?

 

Seeing those pics makes me think you have a pinched frame even more. Didn't you say you built this frame years ago?

I wouldn't do the tapped hole in the crossmember. More often than not, the grille/radiator need to be slid one way or the other to fine tune the hood gaps. You'll probably need to slot those holes.

 

Yeah it's pinched, Squeak Bell (Kiwi Connection) built it 20 years ago.
I got the hood and everything all lined up, then reached up underneath and marked the holes through the radiator tabs. Should be OK, the rad holes are much larger than the 3/8" bolts...keeping my fingers crossed that I have enough for adjustment or I'll have to modify the holes and put a nut on the bottom.

 

I was about to say this, they look so much better without that gap at the bottom of the hood sides.

My roadsters' rails were pinched 3/4"/side.