Finally, a week after I set out to install the radiator – it’s in! The mounting bracket Josh made works wonderfully. Screwed it in, coated it with a urethane bumper with double-sided tape, and set the radiator in. The radiator bolts to the three mounting tabs on the frame.

After the radiator was installed I reattached all the hosing and clamped it down ‘for good’. I secured the three main cooling lines to the smaller passenger-side hard-line with some zip-ties to clean things up a bit and keep it neat.

Tonight Josh came over with the radiator mounting bracket he fabbed up that connects to the frame’s radiator mounting bracket. To mount his bracket he had to cut the mounting tab on the frame, and then drill out the original frame ‘tab’ and bolt the new mount to it.  Afterwards we laid in the radiator, pounded down the radiator mounting tabs on the frame to match the angle of the tabs on the radiator, and test fit it. Good to go! I painted the mounting bracket Josh made up and that has to dry, so tomorrow I will install everything.  I will post pics of all this later when I do the radiator install so it is all nice and organized in one post.

Next we planned on plumbing the clutch and brake lines, but Josh forgot his bender so we just got the brackets mounted for the rear stainless steel brake lines and attached the front and rear stainless brake lines. The clips that come with the stainless lines to hold the lines to the brackets are not ‘snug enough’ so I have to track down some better ones. We will run the lines this weekend.

Installed the surge tank – the bolts provided are very short, but are just long enough to do the trick.

Josh finished welding the tabs onto the radiator the other day so he stopped by tonight to get it mounted. Unfortunately, we discovered the radiator support that is welded to the frame lifts the right side of the radiator too high. Friday we will be cutting it off and attaching an adjustable bracket to support the radiator so the mounting tabs get flush with the frame along the top. Then, hopefully, the radiator will be ready to be installed for good.

Afterwards I laid the radiator in place and mock installed the steel corrugated lines to get an estimate for length for each one, and then cut them and put them back into place.  ~34″ for the line going from the passenger side of the radiator to the hardline, and the rest of the tube (~49″) was used for the drivers side radiator-to-hardline connection. It looks like I need the radiator hose off of the stock corvette so I can cut the elbow out of it, so I will have to pick one of those up. I also ran the rest of the smaller radiator lines and surge tank lines. Once the radiator is installed I will secure all the hosing with clamps and secure the hoses to the smaller hardline with zip-ties.

Last night I had my friend Josh pick up my aftermarket radiator – he will be welding mounting tabs to the top of it so I can get it installed into the frame. Right now it is a bit short, and cannot be mounted to the frame like the stock Corvette radiator can. Should have the radiator back Monday.

I’m already getting the itch pretty bad to do anything I can to get started with the build. Bear with me as I post updates with way too much detail for simple tasks. The radiator needed the condenser and fan shroud attached so I made that today’s activity. The BeCool radiator is a direct-fit radiator for the C5 Corvette so the AC condenser clipped on easily. The fan shroud needed to be bolted to the top of the radiator using holes drilled through the shroud’s upper clips. Perfect fit.