RADIATOR PANEL - lesson learned

[Barry Brown]

Hi,

Sharing this to prevent anyone else making the same mistake when replacing the radiator shroud lower panel.

I retained the factory top section and removed the rusted lower piece. I carefully drilled out the spot welds.
I then fitted the top section back on the car and bolted the new (Indonesian made) section to the chassis front edge and plug welded through the old spot weld holes. All good and it fitted nicely although I did have to dress the lip slightly to make it a 90degrees angle like the original.

Guess what I did wrong...? I didn't fit the radiator to the aperture before aligning the new bottom piece as I hadn't realised that the radiator sits inside the lip rather than behind it. The consequence was that after having painted the new shroud I discovered that the nearside corner was fouling the radiator bottom when I tried to reassemble the car 12 months later.
I had to cut and remake the lip followed by repairing the new paint finish as well.

Stupid mistake in hindsight as I usually have a dry run with everything before it gets painted to make sure it fits. I didn't do it this time as I scrapped the broken radiator and hadn't purchased the new one at that point in time.

Doh!

[bmcecosse]

Double check that the bonnet shuts nicely before fixing it all in place !