Mounting radiator, components and fenders

[Garage_ridden72]

I recently inherited a 72 that was chopped just forward of the firewall. I am at the stage in the rebuild where I'm considering options for hanging this cooler, that accumulator, pumps, radiator etc and was hoping to find some ideas here. If anyone has a couple pics of how they rebuilt their front end, and wouldn't mind sharing, I would be grateful. I am sure I'm making it out to be harder than it is.

 

[70_Steve]

HI and welcome to the site.

I was lucky? enough to start out with a complete Bronco, so I have no first-hand experience doing what you're doing. But, I'm thinking... It all depends on what you want to wind up with. There are several directions you could head.

If you want to wind up with a stocker, you can buy all the sheetmetal from the firewall forward. you can buy it all either new or used. There's no problem splicing in the inner fenders. S'matter o fact, lots of guys doing a frame-off, will cut the inner fenders off, just to make the tub more managable. Then weld or bolt the inner fenders back on when they get to "that point".

Another option is to tube the front to replace the inner fenders and radiator core support, then just hang the sheet metal off of tabs on the tube supports.

I'm sure others will chime in here with other suggestions and, hopefully, some pictures.

 

[Old-Red]

Picture of a tube front end.

 

[Dusty]

I've tubed the front end on every EB I've owned (3 so far) and helped a couple others on theirs. Removing the sheetmetal inner front clip and replacing it with a tubular core support has many benefits, including much better access to the engine bay, better dissipation of under-hood heat, more room for shock mounts, you can move the radiator forward for better clearance from the fan, which can be important if you're going serpentine, and last but not least it looks bad-ass. You'll get a few whiners who say mud and dirt can get on the engine but just tune those guys out. You can get crap on your engine even with full inner fenders, but with them gone its much easier to hose it all out.

I do not have any photos on my computer here at work but if I think about it when I get home tonight I'll dig up a few.

 

[Garage_ridden72]

Thanks guys - helps a lot!

To elaborate, I'm building a rock crawler, so cooling is a concern. Also, on the east coast currently, so mud and crap in the engine bay is on the list, albeit much lower in priority. I had planned on building a square-tube front radiator and grill mount, bolted to the front body mounts and bolted back to the "high lift" shock supports. Then, to facilitate quick removal of the fenders (for engine access) and to further support the radiator mount, I was going to attach a piece of small-flange (probably 1") angle iron to the fenders - w/ 1 or 2 bolts aft and 1 bolt on the square tube fwd going through existing fender mounting holes.

Questions remaining: How to attach the fender bottom on the front - is support from the grill ample?
How to put door inserts in and retain the ability to quickly remove the fenders - Any [reasonable] way to move the fender mounting points fwd of the door jam? Has anyone just cut them off all together?

Does this sound reasonable - or am I out in left field here?

Old-Red, how do you mount your sheet metal? Do you have a one piece front end?

Thanks again!

 

[Old-Red]

That picture is from a local shop who is working on my Bronco and that just happened to be another Bronco in there, not mine. I believe the tubing is drilled and tapped for the normal bolts at least across the top. I'm not sure how the bottom attaches yet but will try and get some more pictures or ask the guy. On that Bronco the guy went with fiberglass fenders and grill all one piece but he may end up cutting them apart, not really sure what his plans are and they change all the time. I might be by there tonight but will be there on Monday for sure to drop off some parts and get a few more pictures.

Kevin

Here is a picture of the owner of the shops Bronco, it's not finished but is drivable and has a tube front end.