Cooling system goes live

The task at hand is to mount the radiator and run some hoses. How hard can that get? There's even a page in the build manual with step by step instructions and illustrations. It reads like this: step 1, take a metal bracket and rivet it to aluminum radiator ... That's where I put the book down. That manual never stops to crack me up. If I were to do exactly as they say, the aluminum radiator will come loose after a few heat cycles. After all, the hot aluminum will expand far more than the mild steel and eventually loosen up all the rivets. I generally avoid dropping vital parts while driving. 

Let's look at what Ford had for their radiator support. No surprises here. We have some steel brackets with rubber bushes. I like that. I will use that. Of course they don't fit. Cut, weld, drill, spray paint, bolt it up.

Nice! It looks like it was meant to be there from insertion. Yes, the peg you see is the one that usually holds your kitchen cabinet shelves in place. There was no room for another bolt but that peg will do the job of preventing mount from rotating.

And the radiator is in! It's never that easy. I still need to come up with some sort of lower radiator support. For now, a bunch of zip ties will hold it up. 

This is the lower hose with the fill tube build into it. It has to stay but with a small alteration. 

Time to connect the dots.

Here all the parts were joined with stainless steel tubing and the cooling system was completely sealed and ready for water, at least in theory. I did fire it up and run it. The system was burped accordingly and eventually the heater joints showed the signs of leaks. It turns out there are some missing o-rings in those fittings. It would be nice if they were included as part of the heater kit or at least mentioned somewhere in the documentation. I found out about their existence after intense googling. 

So maybe I was too ambitions to say the system was "going live". However, as with many aspects of this build, is anything ever done or finished? The o-rings will be put in once I do the wiring behind the dash and pull the heater out. The lower rad support will be built once the body is on and the final incline of the radiator is determined. For now, it's done.