jim lockwood

I've been back and forth through the entire thread and I can't find where you have precisely described the issue. All I can find is this vague mention of a "hood fit problem".

Would you, please, explain what this means..... in detail?

gbvette62

Good point, though since the radiator appears to be sitting high on the left (driver's) side, and the paint on the underside of the hood is scratched above the water outlet, I'd guess that's where the interference is. Also, from the OP's post quoted below, I'm pretty sure it's the top water outlet that's hitting the hood.

The only "mark" I could see was the one right above the outlet.

Go back and look at your pictures in post 12 (I couldn't get your pictures post when I quoted the post?). It's hard to tell in the pictures, and it just may be an optical illusion, but it looks like the radiator isn't sitting all the way down, on the driver's side? Both sides of the radiator should be sitting down flush, on the 2 cups.

Also, what is the white spot on the bottom of the radiator, in the second picture? Is there something under the radiator there, or is it just aluminum showing, from scratched off paint?

The only thing that holds the 61-62 radiator into the core support, is the top bracket, and the 2 hoses. As I said in my earlier post, you have the wrong upper hose. The "482" is the upper hose for the 61 top tank radiator, while you should have either the 3788191 (1x4 bbl) or the 3788192 (2x4 bbl & FI).

Could your problem be something as simple as the wrong upper hose, pulling up the left side of the radiator????

johngammel

One of the other '61 guys suggested that I put a shim or two on just one side. So we cut a repro shim and put one in. Not enough. Put two in and snugged things down. This had the effect of "tipping" the core support so that it is now very,very close to true - see pic of car sitting on the dead level lift. Then put the radiator in with a new correct upper hose and tested it. After some miles put the hood on this PM. After we got it adjusted there is 1/64" clearance as measured with modeling clay between the front "boss" on the radiator and the hood when the hood is reasonably adjusted.

So the saga of the new radiator is done. Now I'll just need to do some extended driving. The only other way I can lower the core support more would be to reduce the thickness of the rubber spacer on the bottom but that might cause too much vibration for the radiator so I'm keeping that repro original.

rich5962

John,

I'm in late on this, but have read into the explanation of what your inherent problem may be. I think I understand. If you feel comfortable with your 1/64" clearance(I personally would not), then that's up to you. But if you want to fix it right and not have to continually repaint the underside of your hood and support, you may want to check this out and consider a permanent fix. I suspect this problem will come back and haunt you as miles pass by. It would, however take some work but may save you much more work later.

I suspect your problem is caused by inadequate and incorrect installation of your core support to the inner skirts. You cannot simply remove the cardboard shims at the lower center of the support. It's still attached to the skirts on the sides. It really depends how many shims are there. How thick is that area?

You said you did in fact loosen the support a bit, but as you discovered it didn't move much. You may compromise your side fenders and stress the body due to uneven forces if you just remove the lower center shims. It shouldn't really move at all. It's not supposed to. If your car had previous work or replacement nose or top surround, it is possible it was not done correctly to ensure proper hood alignment and spacing to the body, and to the frame itself. This is a critical step as if not done properly at that time, follow on problems like you're seeing can be haunting.

If there are adequate shims at the lower center core support mount, say 1/4" or so, a way you could increase your hood to support clearance is to move the support downward with respect to the upper body. The design of the '58-'62 support requires it to be mounted so that the hood, when it's hinges attached to the support are at their highest point, will still allow the hood to be lowered via hinge adjustment to be aligned with the top surround. In your case, you want to raise the hood away from the support, so you have to lower the support to allow that.

The support is bolted to the inner skirts using 2 bolts along the sides. The '61 design has captive nuts on it's core support for the fan shroud. This makes it easier to adjust the core support to the skirts. It may be as simple as opening up the 4 holes(lower) in the skirts where the support attaches. You would also have to loosen and play with the support side extensions, as they are also attached to the skirts and bolt to the support on each side. There is a small amount of play there and if needed a little rework of their mount holes may be needed. This would allow the support to be lowered and this would allow you to raise the hood away from the support to realign it to the surround. This adjustment would be at the hinges 3 side bolts(L & R) where attached to the support.

But.......If there are minimal shims at the lower center support mount, then the "body" must be raised away from the support to get clearance. Still opening up the side holes but now raising the body. Caveat now is you cannot do that without affecting several other components. These are, the bumpers, the grille bar, the bumperette assembly, steering column, and if a '58-'60 with copper/brass radiator.... the fan shroud, radiator, and fan shroud position to the frame. In all '58-'62 cases, this may require reshimming of the body at the 8 body mount locations in the interior floor section.

The end result would get your hood up and away from the support.

Rich

0Tom@Dewitt

I wonder about those new cushions. Some reproduction ones are made from really hard rubber almost like urethane. You might want to swap back the old ones or at least the two bottom ones.
It doesn't look like the radiator is fully seated because I can see cushion on one side and pin on the other and the radiator seems higher on the driver side. Worst case, shave some cushion off until they just pop up over the cradle they sit in.
You might also want to check the hole in the center of the metal cushion cup. The pin on the radiator is 1/2 and the hole in the cup is just slightly larger. If the two cups are not exactly on 11" centers, you could rock on one pin or the other. I'd ream each one out to 9/16 so you have a little play for mis-alignment

johngammel

This is a pic of the radiator I took out. Then the cushion on the drivers side and then the passengers side. They are much more close in "crush" than before but not identical.

I'll have one of the other '61 guys come over and help me adjust the hood so it's up a little more in the front. Hopefully the judges next month won't do much of a deduct for alignment but I'm driving it over 100 miles so I need to not have problems. And maybe someone can show me the error(s) of my way(s).

rich5962

John, I have a '61 in the shop on my 4-post with no engine or radiator, but has it's core support installed and adjusted. I removed it a while ago to refinish and re-welded a few missing square weld nuts. I'll drop it down and take some measurements for you. I can put the hood back on and check dimensions too.

Anything in particular you want ?

rich5962

Retiring for the evening so I just took some various shots with measurements for you. See if these help.

That copper straightedge is a 36" yardstick, placed just evenly on the edges of the surround above the gutters on both sides.

Rich
p.s. car is back up in the sky so no more till tomorrow.

johngammel

Thanks for all the pictures. For the next week or two I'm going to concentrate on my Lakeland punch list. In a conversation this morning at coffee a person I'd never met before said to ensure that I get the operations section so that I don't lose points there. And I've got the correct seat belts and battery coming, and am working on the regulator waiting for calls back. And I'm pulling the wheels to sandblast and repaint. Hopefully will have time for the core support before Lakeland but...

rich5962

You're welcome John, They're there if needed for comparison. Let me know if you need any more info. I needed to install that radiator anyways.

Yes Ops is most important. Triple check everything. FYI make sure your fast idle is to spec, it may seem high, but it isn't. See the JG, and also the AMA specs.

A little gotcha that happened to me....Make sure outer high beam lamp filaments work. I had a brand new repro T3 set fail in ops on my '59. When I tested them at home I was in the driver seat, saw hi-beams go on both sides, but at the ops test, only the inner worked on one side. Tricked me when I saw them go high both sides, only the inner on that side worked. Defective bulb.

Rich