ok i am going to be building a radiator wing. i wanna know the best guage of aluminum to do this with.
.050, 16ga, 11ga? also if you guys have pics of how you are mounting the rads in the wing with. this is what i am going to be shooting for on the top.

my sides will be alittle differant. also would you guys rivet or weld? are the Dzus fasteners going to be strong enough to hold the wing or should it be bolted?
any help would rock guys
i see some talented fabricaters on here and look forward to all the advice you can give me!

bump.....
need some help with this one guys

If I were doing this, I would build the wing around the radiator mount, not the mount on the wing....

In other words, I would mount the radiator to the frame with brackets and tabs at the height I wanted the wing then build the sheet metal around it.

I have never done it nor do I intend to, but this makes sense to me.

My radiator is mounted to the rear frame with brackets and the wing is dzus fastened to the frame. Don't mount the radiator to the wing or you will be asking for trouble.

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Maybe it's just me, but I don't really like the idea of the wing mounted radiator. Even a slight roll over, where the car is perfectly able to drive away, might be stranded because the radiator and wing can rip off so easy in a roll. I prefere to have the radiator, gas tank, battery, etc. inboard so thye frame protects them...IMO...

I don't care for it either but that is how the car was when I got it. I have no where else to put it unless I put it high and block all of my rear vision.

If I roll mine the last thing Im worried About is the radiator getting trashed.
Your going to have allot more stuff to fix besides the radiator.
Im more concerned with the little kids in the back seat getting sprayed if it starts leaking. As far away from them as possible.

Couple ways to look at that, a broken radiator can very easily shower the interior of the car from a good distance away, I would think it getting damaged to the point of throwing hot antifreeze is greater hanging out past the frame. I also think that a slight rollover, something minor that can be driving away from, may be alot worse if the radiator hits. It's not just about wanting to make it back to camp, it's about keeping the thing undamaged so it doesn't shoot hot fluid over people.....

What kind of car are you working on? Do you have any pictures?

Yoshi and vmaxup both make good points. I have seen more light roll overs where the car could not drive away because of the radiator in the wing than I have seen radiators leak and spray passengers from being mounted up high. I don't like it up high either but with as many builders mounting the radiator that way I can only figure it's not much of a problem.

Do you already have the radiator? If you could get a shorter but wider one you chould mount it behind the passenger compartment but it would be low enough to not block your vision.

Imagine that, I found a great picture of lower and wider...





Totally protected and the chance of spray is greatly reduced.

My radiator is also mounted to the frame with brackets and the wing is attached with dzus fittings also, haven't ever had any problems with it.

ok here is what i am working with. its a big boy fugitive, ther rear arms are 3x3 going to be changed to 4x5,
and the front is getting the a-arm treatment. allready have a subi for it. and i am getting ready to build a 091 for it. ( i know the suspension is crooked the guy that welded the pivots in got them wrong. he is fixing them)


here is a quick sketch of what i am going to do to the rear cage area. i like the idea of the wing being far away from the cab, but i can see the point of haveing itside the cage too. the thing with water is. it cools VEARY fast so if it did rupture, it would have a good 4' to cool before it got to me.

what do you guys think?

Safety needs to be addressed here. Move the radiator to a place safe for it and the passengers whatever it takes.Hot water BURNS!

You Kansas folk don't read too well, we're talking about antifreeze, not water, get with the program, lol.....



I don't see why being protected in the frame closer to the cab automatically makes it a burn hazard? It's only a burn hazard if a line blows or the radiator is crushed, this seams less likely to me being protected in the frame. Also, how often to radiator lines blow for no reason? If the hoses are properly clamped, maybe double clamped and have barbed fittings that lock the hose in place when pressed on, it should be fine. You can always build a thin aluminium shield around the top of the radiator and safety wire the hose so if it ever did blow off it would not shoot around, it would blow the water into the shield and then down. It seams to me the best bet is to locate it as far away as possible but still in the frame, angle the hose connections so they are pointing away from the cab, then build a shield and clamp the hose in multiple places (to prevent it from going balistic) as a safety feature to catch and direct the hot fluid incase of a blown hose.

This was my old car and it was hard to tell it had a radiator.

My new car in the second picture I just left the radiator exposed, the NorthStar engine is perfect for this set up because the water pump is on the back of the motor, plus you don't get the hot air from the radiator blowing on your engine and going into your intake.
DON~~~