Build The Clustertruck Rides Again - Refurbishing a 1975 Chevota

[RWBeringer4x4]

From here it is getting the fore and aft positioning right, and getting the height correct. The challenge here is that I want the fan fairly close to the radiator, but the further toward the headlights I move it, the motor steering shaft clearance I’ll have. I think the “happy medium” is somewhere around here:

Sitting in a couple of hunks of 2x4, The fan is about an inch from the top of the radiator, and only goes below the radiator to about the bottom of the tank. I can center it side-to-side.

This puts the fan blades just under two inches from the radiator:

It also give me about 2 inches between the grill and the radiator to add a power steering cooker in front of the radiator:

The 2x4’s are almost exactly the height I’m going for on a more permanent mounting solution. With the radiator Oriented fore and aft as above, I have about 1/2” of clearance at the steering shaft:

So next up I’ll be making a metal upright about 2x4 height on the bracket, with a way to mount a cross beam to it that will ultimately have holes drilled to mount the radiator centered, and that will be “all she wrote.” I’ll also need to track down some rubber pads to mount between the cross-bar and the radiator bracket to isolate it.

 

[pb4ugo]

Looks good. I only mentioned it because, imo, it looks cleaner than having bar stk going from frame rail to frame rail.

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

I wasn’t entirely happy with the initial radiator brackets I made. I tried to get too clever, and angle the radiator at the same pitch as the engine. Good in theory, but in execution, it would have looked really bizarre in the engine bay. They were also sloppy - the lower holes were drilled too low so it was next to impossible to get a socket or box wrench on the nuts, and the gussets were weak - the brackets still had a lot of flex.

So I learned from my mistakes and made new ones. They’re still not precision fabrication but I like how they turned out:

“Prototypes” vs the finished products:

Finished brackets (less paint)

for the rest of the mounting system, I’m not quite done, but I’ve test fit everything and it will work to my liking. I still need some properly sized bolts and a bit more welding to make assembly and disassembly less of a pain.

How it works:

Some short sections of box steel will sit on the brackets, but I don’t plan to weld them in as it will restrict access to the nuts mounting the brackets to the frame.

Instead, I’ll probably weld the box steel to the bottom of the cross beam, then, weld in some bolts to mount through these holes and “sandwich” the box steel between the lower bracket and the cross beam.

The rubber is chunks of a leftover 1/2 inch rubber isolator pad for my compressor. Way overkill but it should isolate the radiator from vibration and adds some space to clear the steering shaft.

The radiator will mount using the stock studs through the rubber pads.

Unfortunately I may need to add longer studs to replace the stock ones (or find some thinner isolators). I can get a nut on the stock studs but doubt I’ll be able to get too many threads with a washer and lock washer.

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

A couple more odds and ends to wrap up...

I need to find a good way to permanently mount this steering fluid cooler. I’m considering welding another strap across the front of the radiator and hanging the cooler from it. The mounting setup provided mounts on plastic straps through the radiator fins which makes me a little uncomfortable.

The radiator also flexes a lot on those big chunks of rubber, so I’ll need to fab up a support rod or two, and figure out where to mount them. I only have one support arm bracket on my radiator mount so I’ll start there and see if that makes it rigid enough.

All in all, this has been a lot of work to lower a radiator a whopping two inches!

 

[waiting for time]

Just bolt 2 thin steel strips to the radiator support frame and mount the cooler to that. Makes it easy to reposition if needed.

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

My father in law stopped by this weekend to help out with the clustertruck’s first piece of body work. Given how thin the transmission hump metal is, and the fact that I’ve never patched metal, I figured I’d have him school me.

As a reminder - the PO had cut a long channel in the hump to allow for shif We clearance when the transmission was up agains the firewall. He had also, inexplicably, cut a chunk out of the side. Luckily I still had the missing chunk. Here is what we started with:

We patched the side piece by tacking it in inside the truck to get the orientation right. Then we just stacked welds and ground them back. We definitely struggled with .030 wire but managed to make it work on the lowest voltage setting the Hobart could muster.

For the top cut, we used clecos to position a piece of 22 gauge, then patched over the initial piece with a second piece. The strengthened it a bit and made for easier welding.

Ultimately, 22 gauge is just a little thinner than the stock tunnel material, which is probably the metric equivalent of 20 gauge - but a serious cleaning, a little body filler and a couple more tacks and grinds to even things out a bit and this should look good as new:

It's tough to see in this picture, but there are a number of tiny screw holes in a line down either side of that gash in the transmission hump. I'm guessing this isn't "stock?" - probably some weird attempt to make a giant shift boot.

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

Up next I built a radiator support rod for the driver’s side.

First, I figured out the angle from the radiator bracket to the point on the frame I’m using, and cut an angle in some 1/2” tube. Then, I added a small bracket to the bottom:

Then I cut a piece of 3/8 rod, and threaded it for M10x1.25 nuts:

Rod got inserted into tube, and welded at the proper length:

Then I cut up more of the 1/2” isolator pad I’d used for the lower radiator mounts and drilled a 3/8” hole. The size was determined by what would fit inside the gusseted bracket on the radiator channel. They’re about 1”x1” square:

The rod has some adjustability built in. The two nuts at the bottom serve to set the fore and aft “tilt” of the radiator. Once leveled, I can lock the two nuts together as a jamb nut.

The rubber is backed by a thick 3/8” fender washer. The 3/8 rod passes through the support and is met by a rubber washer backed by another fender washer, a lock washer, and the top but.

This “sandwich” should provide good isolation. All in all it’s a tight squeeze past the steering shaft but it should work, and definitely provides some rigidity.

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

A final shot of the isolator:

Next up, I’ve got some more fitting and clearancing to do.

I can’t build the same radiator support on the driver’s side because my battery tray’s leg conflicts:

But I could mount over top of the battery tray’s leg:

A couple other issues to contend with:

1. As it sits, the battery is kind of far forward of the axle (more vibration prone). Do I relocate it all together and make a new tray to mount it?

2. The obvious, easy solution is to use the same bolt hole the batter tray’s back leg mounts to to mount the support rod, or I could get really creative and mount the support rod to the leg of the battery tray.

3. I could put a slight angle and a longer foot on he battery tray, which would allow clearance for a similar support to what I put on the driver’s side.

There is no L bracket on this side of the radiator, so I’ll need to add one. As such - my options are virtually unlimited.

Likewise - my radiator is JUST slightly too close to the grille to allow for conflict free installation of the steering cooler via a strap across the U-channel:

It’s hard to see, but it just barely touched the grille mesh:

I’m also a little concerned about location and may need to give it a bit more thought - as it stands the front fascia blocks most of the fins - I’m wondering how well air would be pulled through it where it sits. The orange tape is the top of the cooler. most of it sits behind he sheet metal with the exception of the lower quarter which is in that bottom corner mesh section.

The issue is, mounting it any lower would result in conflicts with he mesh mountings screws and the bottom sheet metal by the hinge.

Naturally, I could cut new radiator mounts AGAIN to love the radiator farther away from the grille, but I’d prefer to avoid that if possible (took forever to get everything lined up and flush).

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

A possible compromise - I have about 3/4” between the strap and the radiator. Putting a bend in the strap would allow me to move the cooler backward and might buy me just enough space to avoid the conflict with the grille.

Before I go too much further down this route, however, I’ll need to mount the new radiator - any slight difference in thickness could really screw the pooch at this point.

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

Still fiddling with fitment of the power steering cooler. Started putting together the indented bracket to mount it back closer to the radiator.

The cooler itself should fit. I’ve got just enough behind the bracket for a bolt head. That said, I’m sure there will be some vibration and that strap isn’t exactly rigid, so I may end up tacking the bolts in and grinding the heads off for clearance, leaving some mounting studs.

With all that in place I should be about 1/2” from the grille, which should be just enough to get a compression fitting in.

The last issue - I won’t have room on the edge nearest the pump, so I may have to run the line from the pump to the inside inlet nipple, then outlet it over by the pump, probably using normal rubber hose instead of the braided stuff from Downey since it’s the return side anyway.

In hindsight, it would probably be way less work to just rebuild the radiator bracket to move the assembly forward an inch.

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

I’m about to take a big step backward. I’ve pretty much determined that, try as I might, ive mounted the radiator too close to the grill to manage squeezing in a steering oil cooler.

I can get the cooler to fit, but there is really no good way to make the hose fit. The well always be punched between the grill and radiator mount:

This means I’ll probably need to cut the Lower radiator brackets I built and weld in another inch of material to move the whole assembly closer to the fan.

This, in turn, means I will likely need to cut and modify the radiator support rods.

From there, there is really no reason to recess the steering cooler into the radiator mount as it just makes routing the hoses more difficult.

In fact, with more space I could probably mount the cooler so the inlets are sideways, right to the radiator mounting bracket - so I’d get to undo all the painstakingly measured and cut bracketry I’ve spent a couple days on. (Clearances were absurdly tight)...

This is just tacked together at this point so I may just be able to make some tweaks to it, but with more space, it may make more sense to run it with the inlet and outlet sideways.

Meanwhile, I’m trying to decide how best to route my hoses.

I could mount it to the radiator support (I’d probably devise a cleaner way than a zip tie)

The real problem will be the low pressure side. Turn out I have the wrong pump (once again) as compared to most - the outlet faces the wrong way.

I can run a tight loop back, but it will probably wind up sitting on the frame or up against the motor mount:

The advantage is then I could cleanly run both hoses over the shock mount on the fender:

Just not sure I like that lower corner where it sits by the frame and motor mount...

Alternatively I could run the line forward, but then I’m contending with the pump’s belt, the eventual fan shroud, the steering shaft, and the fan.

I could get through it with some clever bends and mounts (I think) but it would be dicey, especially if the hose doesn’t hold the bends... if I routed it this way, I’d probably mount both hoses to the radiator support rod.

Anyone run one of these pumps with the reversed low pressure inlet?

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

This will hopefully be the last bit of fabrication before I can start painting the radiator components and putting stuff back together. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll drive the clustertruck again this summer!

I built a fan shroud - which was way harder than it had any right to be. However, a couple nights in the garage and test fitting and tweaking 11,000 times I have something passable.

I started with a posterboard template for the major components:

Then I build the box frame - The hard part was the bottom of the shroud as I have a huge 18” fan and a ton of conflicts. The fan hangs about 2 inches below the radiator - with the appropriate clearances around the blades (more on this later) I have precious few fractions of an inch for metal between the hole for the fan, the steering shaft of the driver’s side, and the radiator hose on the passenger’s side.

This required a number of iterations to get right, but I wound up with this to clearance the radiator hose and the fan:

TIGHT squeeze!

Once everything got translated to metal, I test fit in the truck:

My only concern (brought up in another thread) is that I may have made he ring a bit too tight...

With a lot of tweaking, I got it to about 5/8 inch all the way around, but I’m a bit worried the engine will torque itself into the shroud.

Worst case scenario, I may go to a 17” fan, as long as it moves enough air to cool the engine.

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

Next up, I spot welded everything together:

Then cleaned it up a bit:

It’s a bit awkward and lumpy, but not bad given that I have never worked with sheet metal, and literally did all the bending with a couple 2x4’s, a deadblow, and vice grips.

There are still some air gaps I might try to plug. I might also ultimately cut it in half and add brackets for ease of access to the fan and belts later.

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

Tonight I decided to cut my hard work in half:

Then made some brackets to hold it together. I THINK this might be the last tweak to the shroud.

This way, if my 18” fan winds up hitting he shroud, i can switch to a 17” without draining the radiator - plus it will help for general ease of maintenance down the road.

Out front, I think this is how I’ll mount the steering cooler - just need to cut the hoses to length and mount them up cleanly.

The return will go from the box to the lower outlet on the cooler (so it fills from the bottom, hopefully pushing the air out). Then back to the pump.

I’ll probably route the hoses to the pump along the fender. It will create a bit of a loop off the back of the steering box and bring the low pressure hose close to the engine mount, but this seems like the lesser of two evils. My other option puts it hanging in space below the pump’s belt and pulley - and closer to the fan - spinning things and rubber hoses tend not to mix well, and I don’t have a good way to mount it to hold it in place to avoid conflict.

 

[thebigredrocker]

You probably know this. When you go the cut that fragola hose, wrap it a couple times with electrical tape. Then make your cut in the middle of the tape. You’ll get a clean cut that way. I use my dremel thin cutoff wheel. A big grinder wheel will probably work fine too.

Really nice work you are doing on your 40. Can’t wait to hear “the clustertruck has awakened”

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

You probably know this. When you go the cut that fragola hose, wrap it a couple times with electrical tape. Then make your cut in the middle of the tape. You’ll get a clean cut that way. I use my dremel thin cutoff wheel. A big grinder wheel will probably work fine too.

Really nice work you are doing on your 40. Can’t wait to hear “the clustertruck has awakened”

Thanks! I'm really looking forward to it. Each little project, I'm inching a bit closer. There's a bunch of little stuff in the way - cutting and modifying the walker Y-pipe for a better fit, cutting the radiator hoses, painting all this bracetry and the radiator components I just built, then hooking everything back up. Still a lot to do, but I'm definitely starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel.

The main conundrum I face is the transmission hump and heaters. I'd like to keep the tranny hump out of the truck 1. because it needs more body work and 2. because it makes getting to everything, adjusting the clutch, etc. easier. The issue is, I can't install the heaters (and therefore connect the heater hoses) until the trans hump is installed, or I'll need to take it all back out again down the road.

Seems like the best short-term answer is looping the heater hose back on itself to keep a closed circuit at the engine, and leave the heaters and transmission hump out while I get everything running and dialed in. The down-side is the inevitable anti-freeze mess that will come with then draining the radiator down the road to put that all back in.

Trying to take this in baby steps so it is easier to back out as necessary and try again when something inevitably goes wrong.

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

Had a very cool cruiser-related weekend. @reddingcruiser himself (the man, the myth, the legend) happened to have some work on the east coast and a Sunday to burn - so he took a detour and paid me a visit. It was very cool to finally put a face to a name after shipping parts to eachother back and forth across the country for years! We took a look at the clustertruck, and discussed progress and plans - and he shared some pictures of his builds and runs on the Rubicon. Given the general lack of interest locally in these trucks, it was great to spend some time with someone who shares the addiction.

As for the 40 - Still ticking boxes - all the small stuff that needs to get done before I can fire the 350 up. I’m very close at this point.

Made a couple more tweaks to the fan shroud after my discussions with @reddingcruoser - decided to enclose the top part of the fan a bit more:

Bent up a flange using a leftover piece of jigsawed plywood as a buck to bent it to shape.

Next I ground out the small 1/4 flange i’d added to the top and, using clamps and a deadblow for the final fitment, plug welded the extension in from the back.

Test fit - came out pretty good. I wish it covered more of the circumference but 25” was the longest piece of sheet metal I had left. It should keep my hands out of the fan, at the very least!

Last, the box section at the bottom of the shrouded looked like a good place to trap water, so I added a drain.

Didn’t want to make it too big, to minimize air leaks.

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

I don’t like the difficult to access, cheap, plastic radiator petcock that came with the CSF radiator - so I built a drain tube extension with AN fittings and the leftover hose @thebigredrocker sent me.

Next time I place an order for parts I’ll probably swap that 30 degree fitting for a 90. That will allow the pipe to be more cleanly bent up and strapped against the radiator frame when not in use:

Then came new fuel lines, which needed to be re-routed through a TINY gap between the alternator (moved to passenger side) and the water pump.

Took several attempts to get the bends JUST right.

Just waiting on a 90 degree heater hose fitting to replace the straight nipple pictures so I can run the heater hoses through the intake valley. As it stands I have a conflict with the new fuel line routing.

Just need to add some rubber here and the fuel lines will be done.

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

Last up, I cut off, modified, and re-welded the legs on my battery tray to slide it back , and inboard, about 1.5.” This provided the clearance necessary to add an overflow bottle mounted to the radiator frame:

Resulted in some interesting bends...

I could have mounted the overflow bottle off a bracket in the corner behind the passenger side headlight, but this would have prevented access to the bib bolts for future disassembly.

I’m trying to keep everything as accessible as possible for easy maintenance later. As it stands the battery tray will mount over the alternator which is a bit annoying but I should still be able to gain access to it to tighten the belt, etc. as necessary.

 

[Cdaniel]

Love the fan shroud evolution. I've been down that road a few times. On the PS pump low side. You can get different tanks that have alternate barbs on it. Easy change.