Breeze radiator help

[kmseddon]

Hello all - I just got the Breeze radiator upper hinge kit, upper shroud kit, and lower support kit. I new to all this. Anybody have a set of photos of how to install them all? The instructions are light on photos? Do you really need to grind off those two tabs on frame? How does the long hinge get mounted? Lower support brackets? Which way is up on the new FFR radiators? I don't want to start drilling until I see what correct looks like.

Thanks everyone!

[vtullomk4]

I’ll try to help as I recently installed the Breeze stuff.

The upper hinge get mounted with tapped holes in the cross bar. You need to trim the 2 mounts just below the bar so the radiator hangs at right level. I used a air grinder to remove.

For the lower brace, I did not need to cut anything. The rubber hose goes on left and right side as a shock absorber.

I do recommend the Boig tubes and the Breeze lower tube mounts. Neat and clean. Pictures attached.

Vince

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[egchewy79]

Make sure you get carbide tipped bits. Regular titanium bits won't get you through the SS hinge. The radiator should have the return to the water pump on the DS with a peacock at the top.

[JB in NOVA]

Here was my experience (with pics):

I spent some time this weekend working on the radiator. I’m using the Breeze fan shroud and Breeze upper and lower radiator mounts. Because the Breeze upper hinge mount requires cutting the FFR mounts off of the ¾ inch cross bar at the front of the engine compartment, I wanted to get this done before the engine is installed.

Assembling the FFR radiator and fan with the Breeze shroud was relatively simple:



As with all the Breeze parts I’ve used so far, everything fit together perfectly. Attaching the hinge to the upper channel was also straight forward:



At first, I was a bit confused by the written instructions regarding how to properly orient the hinge (the instructions say to put the “hinge pin facing down,” but this is somewhat ambiguous when the radiator is on the bench top). Anyway, this picture in the instructions cleared everything up for me:



The next step was to remove the FFR mounting tubes that are welded to the ¾ inch cross bar. I must admit I was paranoid about damaging the cross bar after reading another builder’s unfortunate experience with this. I used a cutting wheel on an angle grinder to cut through the welds, being careful to cut on the “sacrificial” side of the weld, not on the cross-bar side. I switched to a Dremel cutting wheel for a couple spots where I couldn’t get the angle grinder into position.

Once this was done, I used a chisel to work the mounting tubes away from the cross bar.



After working the mounting tubes back and forth for a couple minutes, they broke free, leaving some remnants still attached to the cross bar. I was able to chisel these remnants off without doing any damage to the cross bar:



Finally, I used a 60-grit sanding wheel on my Dremel to sand everything smooth:



Then I touched up the bare spots with semi-gloss paint.

[JB in NOVA]

And a few more pics:

Attaching the radiator to the frame using the Breeze upper and lower mounts was straight-forward and problem-free. The instructions are very clear, and the parts fit perfectly. Here’s the upper hinge mount installed, with the lower radiator still being supported by a floor jack:



I used an i-Phone app called “Angle Pro” to dial in the angle to 51 degrees. Then I installed the lower mount hardware. Here is the fully installed radiator:



The lower mount uses rubber hoses on either end to provide a “resilient” mounting system that is supposed to reduce stress on the radiator:

Hope that helps!

[toadster]

here's my setup

https://cobradreams.com/2020/07/02/f...-installation/

and do the protective screen too!

https://cobradreams.com/2021/03/15/p...-the-radiator/

[Fixit]

Here's a link to what I did on #9365.

[Blitzboy54]

Do you have to use the hinges or can the shroud be mounted without them?

[JB in NOVA]

Do you have to use the hinges or can the shroud be mounted without them?

You don't need to use the upper hinge to install the shroud. They are entirely separate products. Likewise, you don't need the upper hinge to install the lower support kit. FWIW, I think the lower support kit is the most useful of all these Breeze radiator mods. The lower support kit provides a much better mounting solution compared to the FFR arrangement, and it is well worth the money. But in my opinion, if you're going to order any one of these products, you might as well do all three of them. You will be happy with the overall Breeze radiator mounting arrangement, although it does increase costs.

[Mattgoesfast]

I am working with my dad (kseddon) on this project. I would post a photo of our completed radiator but I need to have 20 posts, so here's one more for the books thank you all!

[egchewy79]

You don't need to use the upper hinge to install the shroud. They are entirely separate products. Likewise, you don't need the upper hinge to install the lower support kit. FWIW, I think the lower support kit is the most useful of all these Breeze radiator mods. The lower support kit provides a much better mounting solution compared to the FFR arrangement, and it is well worth the money. But in my opinion, if you're going to order any one of these products, you might as well do all three of them. You will be happy with the overall Breeze radiator mounting arrangement, although it does increase costs.

Agree w/ the above, and FWIW, I tried to cobble together my own lower mount, and unless you have scrap material laying around, it'll cost you just about the same amount as what breeze charges for their kit. I abandoned that thought and purchased the breeze kit. I'm also using the entire system (upper, lower and shroud).

[ggunter]

Here again FWIW I have found everything Breeze makes that I have bought for my car I find to be simple and well engineered. I too installed my raditator this weekend and used the Breeze lower mount with a piano hinge from lowes as well as the Breeze shroud. It could not have been easier. Cudos to Breeze.

[kmseddon]

Thank you Vince and JB Nova for all your help!! Great advice and I appreciate your help and all the effort everyone puts into this forum. I managed to get everything installed and I thought I should post how the story ended. I was able to use a dremel with a thick metal grinding bit to take off the metal blocks from the top. I just had to cut at the welds a little below where the two pieces of metal lined up to make sure I didn't cut into the aluminum that was staying. Just took my time slowly grinding and then stuck the end of a claw hammer in between the two and pried them apart. No problem. A little sanding to smooth out the powder coating on the top bar and some POR15 Top Coat Glass black and you would never know those two block were ever there. It helps to see how others install the hinge so you know where to drill. It helps to plan out where the rivets are going to go in relation to the bolts to have proper spacing. I also put in 10-32 nutserts in the fan shroud like bossman Paul suggests with 5/8" bolts to hold the fan to make future removal easier. The lower support seemed easier than others. My radiator is straight across on the bottom. I didn't see a reason or need to cut any "V" in the tubing. Not sure why this is done. Used iPhone and able to get 51 degrees of angle. We are only going to hold off riveting the upper shroud in until the engine and body are in place and fully understood. Powers teering rack and Breeze battery box just showed up so doing that next. Thank you again Forum et al. for all your help.

[kmseddon]

Thank you for your time and help with all the info! Much appreciated. Final results shown below. God bless!

[vtullomk4]

Great job. Looks good. I did the nutserts as well. Consider the Breeze and Boig tubes. They are perfect.