Radiator Support Rods

 

First, decide where you want the brackets. I opted for a wider than normal stance, mainly because I thought it would look “planned” for the rods to line up with the wiper posts, and the steering wheel center on the drivers side. I also opted to hang the brackets upside-down and left for right so that they’re not open at the top – I think it makes things smoother. Here I’m just holding it in place to see how it will work. There was a problem with mounting it this far outboard: the bracket is designed for the bar to sit at an angle, but not this much of an angle. I had two options: put it where the bar was happy, or make it work where I was happy. I bet you can guess which way I went. This meant that the bar had to be bent slightly to come off the firewall at the same angle as if the bracket was closer to the middle of the car, but also just enough so that it ended up in the right spot on the rad. While you’ve got the bracket here, mark the hole centers.

I used 1/4-20 riv-nuts into the firewall to bolt the bracket to.

How I Bent the Bar: I melted the Nylok out of two 3/8-24 nuts, then threaded them on to the rod. This let me clamp on the rod without wrecking the threads.

 

I applied some force to the part of the rod closest to the vise so that I didn’t have a huge bow in the rod.