Fixing up a '71 Grand Safari

If that's a 12 volt motor, then it's possible to make something like that work. You simply wire up a high- amperage circuit through a large relay, controlled by the compressor clutch circuit. Install a second battery with isolator and a high-output alternator for police/fire vehicles for powering the motor, then hook the compressor to the system. Just remember, this compressor uses a special non-conductive A/C lube. What'cha tink?

 

One Diesel vehicle battery should suffice, instead of two separate ones

 

Right, but if something goes wrong, gou do not want it taking out one battery, stranding you. Otherwise, sure.

 

A friend that owns a muffler shop said he had some LS exhaust manifolds behind his shop if I wanted to search through all the scraps to see if there was anything that would fit. I was searching for F-body manifolds as the truck manifolds won't work but unfortunately couldln't come up with any. I spent a long time digging through all the pieces and pulled out two different types of manifolds. I brought them back home and neither of them would fit so I took them back and started back in on making some brackets.



I had forgotten how long metal fabrication can take. I was again surprised at how few pictures can sum up hours of work. The below pictures took several days, including one full Saturday.



I removed the old exhaust hanger so that I could add a mounting bracket for the fuel lines.





After after a lot of grinding dust, it looked like this. I will paint this and all of the other parts at one time when I have them finished.





It was time to make the mounting brackets for the radiator. This part was particularly difficult for me to wrap my head around. There seem to be as many ways to mount a radiator as there are people, however I wanted to do it correctly. I tend to believe that if the frame flexes under torsion then hard-mounting the radiator would put undue stress on the aluminum welds of the piece. I wanted to dampen the radiator with rubber mounts as the automobile manufacturers do.





I scrounged through my scrap metal pile and found this piece. This was the very first piece of scrap metal I got at the scrapyard when I first got my welder to use for practice. I had probably cut this thing in half and put it back together 3 or 4 times, as well as laid a lot of beads on top of it. It was pretty close to the right shape and size to make bottom radiator supports.





I made some measurements and started burning through some grinding wheels.





I had a lot of grinding to do to smooth out all of the old practice beads I had put down.





I ended up with these two pieces.





Several years ago I got some inner-tubes from a dump truck tire to use for a project. I plan to use these again to insulate the steel on the bottom mounts from touching the aluminum on the radiator. Aside from providing a cushion, the rubber will prevent the two dissimilar metals from reacting with one another.





The first test fitting revealed that the length of the bracket was just a bit too large. I could have made it work by adding more pieces of rubber, as shown below, but after thinking it over I realized this was not the correct way to fix the problem and I needed to make it right. The size pictured below would require 4 pieces of rubber, with one piece being cut long and folder over on itself on each end in order to secure the radiator with no movement or play.





I had to cut almost this much out of the middle of the bracket.









This is a much better and more secure fit, leaving enough room for two pieces of rubber.





The second piece went quicker because I could use the first as a template.





After a lot more test fitting, grinding and drilling, this was the finished result of the new bracket shape.





After finishing the other one all that will be left is primer, paint and gluing the rubber into the mounts.





Then I moved on to the top. I thought I had stored these rubber insulators from a previous project with some other parts in my dad's barn loft. After going over there and searching everywhere I found they had been less than 5 feet from me the whole time in my garage.





After considering several different types of bracket options for the top I made a rough cardboard template to get an idea of what kinds of bends I would need and to see if I would like the overall shape. My next step will be to try to find someone that will let me use a metal break.

 

That innertube is a good idea, but you said that four layers would be too much. I don't agree. When you have both physical and thermal flex, plus thermal expansion, the two layers may not allow enough wiggle room. I installed a '90 Town Car radiator into my '79 Ranchero, and it's just a bit smaller than the brass radiator that was in there, so I cut sections of old radiator hose to take up the slack and place the radiator, using the factory mounts, to keep the fan blades from rubbing, as well as giving clearance to the lower hose, where it will sit on the crossmember if I hadn't given it clearance. Anyway, it's a good design you made, but you should be prepared to change it if any problems spring up. Otherwise, excellent work and sticktoitiveness.

 

I agree. The OEMs use rubber that's almost 3/4" thick in some cases to shield from vibrations and accounting for the flexing and thermal expansion. Excellent work though!

 

Well, you guys may be correct, but I hope not..hahaha. My thinking was that the bottom mount would be for support and the top mount, using the full rubber isolators, would provide enough dampening for flex and vibration. What do you think?

 

It shakes, rattles and rolls on both ends. Even with the reworked lower mounts, perhaps you could cut two more pieces each side, to just fit underneath, and stack them with the pieces already there? It would depend how deep those c-channels are that you made.

 

Once you start grinding aluminum with those wheels, you could never use them again for grinding steel, because there's the risk of them flying apart, through the embedded aluminum expanding

 

Your work is great Vetteman. You could give some folks on internet reality TV shows about fixing up old stuff with new engines a run for their money! Of course you would have to use some Hollywood magic with time elapsed filming.

 

Or he could even use Discovery Channel script theatrics, by inviting annoying immediate family members to brawl with or invite members of other Discovery Channel families over for garbage can throwing and the like

 

True, but he would have to be building a motorcycle for that to work....

 

There you go. Grizz has a couple of them sitting around. Maybe, we should offer the bike builders free tickets to go visit him on his next birthday. For extra measure, send the Gas Monkeys and that volatile everything builder (I forget his name) who's divorced from that one brunette actress (I forgot her name, also)

 

Vetteman already has enough problems with his nosy neighbors. No sense in adding more chaos to the fray...

 

On the contrary. The wrecking crew could go around keeping the neighboors busy, while Vetteman works undisturbed on cars. Problem is, what'll we call the new show?