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The
Great Radiator Support Swap
or,
How to Install a '73-'79 Radiator Support in a '67-'72 |
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FIG. 1 - Here's a shot of the rust damage I
had to attempt to correct. And this is the good side....the
bottom of the radiator support was even worse! |
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When I
bought my '67 to fix up as a daily driver, the radiator support was
virtually rusted away. In my quest to find a suitable junkyard
replacement, I was discouraged by all the rusted-out pieces on the donor
trucks. It seems that this is a problem area on the '67-'72 pickups, and
good original rust-free supports are getting harder and hard to
find. However, I was told that the '73-'79 range of F-series pickups had
a support that would work with some minor modifications. Since I had
access to an F250 from this era with a virtually perfect support (and it
was FREE!) I set out to find out just what needed to be done to make it
fit.
Some of the
info presented on this page is taken from
Page 3 of my
project update pages, and some obtained a lot more recently. I believe
I've covered everything so far...however, there might be additional mods
necessary that I'm currently unaware of. I haven't yet installed the
support, since it's scheduled to be powder-coated very soon. Prior to
sending it off I wanted to drill any holes needed, so the inside edges
of the hole would also get coated...and I wouldn't risk damaging the
powder-coating by attempting to drill after it was already done. |
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Fig. 2 - I was unable to find a useable
'67-'72 radiator support, but had access to and found that the
'73-79 unit can be used. Here is the side-by-side comparison.... |
Fig. 3 - ...and here is another. The frame
mounting points are the same, but a few holes will have to be
drilled for the hood latch and grille supports. |
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Fig. 4
- In
this shot you can see the additional mounting points on the
'73-'79 piece (on bottom) for the air-conditioning condenser and
the large round hole through which the AC lines pass. There
should be a large two-hole grommet in this hole. |
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Fig. 5 - Using this junker '68 truck to
illustrate, these are the holes needed to be drilled in the
'73-'79 support to mount the grille. |
Fig. 6 - To drill the two upper grille
support holes, just use your grille and valance panel assembly
as a template for marking the drilling location. Here's the top
hole... |
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Fig. 7 -
...and here's the bottom hole, immediately after drilling.
During this mock-up it almost looks like these two lower grille
brackets will need to be shimmed out just a tiny bit, to allow
the turn-signal harness to clear the radiator support. I'll find
out for sure during final assembly and report back. |
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Fig. 8 - In this shot I laid the radiator support
engine-side down and laid the grille on top of it. You can see the hood
latch hole that must be drilled. |
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 Fig.
9 - Here's the mostly-finished top latch hole. I
drilled a 7/16" hole where the bolt needed to be, and then drilled a
1/2" hole right next to it, and widened it out with a die grinder,
to insert the J-nut. All it needs now is a hit with the sander to
smooth it out. If I was more concerned with appearance, I'd use a
roll stone in the die grinder to square up the corners of the hole
so they match the others...I'll probably do that, since this support
will be powdercoated, and I won't want to have to mess with trying
to dress it up after it's done. |
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Since I was getting the
radiator support ready for the powder-coater's, I decided to trial fit
the reproduction inner fenderwell for the driver's side. (I don't have a
passenger side fenderwell yet...but should have soon.) Just so you know,
I'm not entirely sure of it's origins. I got a great deal on it on E-bay
($40!) and I couldn't pass it up. It IS a '67-'72 style, but the fit
wasn't the greatest. Not TOO bad, but could have been better. I
trial-fitted it to a '70 radiator support first, and then the '77
support, and there wasn't any difference in how it fit...not really good
on either. One additional mounting hole will have to be drilled in the
radiator support and one fenderwell hole had to be ovaled out to match
up with the support's J-nut...and I had to use the trusty die-grinder on
the lower support flange, so the fenderwell would sit down flat.
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I recently received an
e-mail from Nick in Cincinnati who had the following contribution. I
thought it was worthy of passing on:
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I saw
your page regarding swapping core supports and thought you may be
able to use some info I found in replacing mine. I was looking for
one for my 1967 and was able the use one from a 1969 F-700. 99% of
the big truck supports are rust-free here opposed to the rotting
F100 ones. I was able to get one with all hardware and removal for
$50. The first thing I noticed was that the mounts were in the
middle, in front of the radiator. Fixing this simply meant removing
two large bolts. Next, I sat it on the frame of the '67 and noticed
it was about 4 inches taller. The big trucks have the same basic
layout, but the bottom part that is spot welded is deeper then the
bottom part welded to the F100s. This simply meant I had to notch
it and re-box it in. Lastly, the big truck support had an odd
radiator spacer that ran the height of the support. This was
removed by drilling about 10 spot welds and knocking it off. This
was followed up by doing the same on the F100's frame mounting
brackets and then re-spot-welding them to the big truck's support.
Finally the holes for the inner fenders were not there, but the
indentations were. Notice Fig. 1 where the bottom sits much lower
than the frame. |
Fig. 1
Fig. 2
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