My 40 Dodge Truck Build - Maybe a 41 LOL

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Hey Guys....hope all is well. Lots of doctor appts but working on the truck as much as I can. The other shoulder is killing me and block sanding the cab isn't helping any.

The radiator finally showed up. All that measuring and mocking up a 2x4 wood radiator paid off. It's going to work out great. Turns out I don't have to stretch the grill which is going to save me a lot of work.

I could use some idea's on the grill extension piece. I'd like to weld that seem between the grill and the extension I'm making out of the hood, but if it's one piece I won't be able to get the radiator out without pulling the grill shell off. To take the grill shell off it would have to slide forward off the frame rails. I'm going to have shock mounts and headlight mounts that will have to come off the frame rails and I was hoping to weld them in.

I suppose the rad could come out thru the bottom while on a lift by removing the steering drag bars as well.

I was thinking about bolting that piece on.... ss carriage bolts, acorn nuts, spiked nuts. I guess if I did that I'd have to have a piece of rubber at the joint. Last thing I'd want is chips there. Any ideas fellas?

Some pics
 

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Took the cab up to my sons on Friday, taped it off and we shot the final coat of 2K epoxy primer on it. I'm always getting a head of myself and shot that Raptor inside the cab and underneath.....so of course the complete interior had to be taped off and bagged less the dash. It was alot of extra work but came out nice.

Monday I'll get the steel for the radiator support and get going with all that. I've decided that I want to keep all of the lines between the grill and the extension piece so I'm going to spot weld it from the underside, not mould it in and keep those lines. I'm gona keep the stock latch on each side cause it has a lot of character. Pics in previous post.

BTW my other side shoulder replacement is set up for Jan 26....arggg
 

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Thanks Bob! Picture of the combination radiator suport & grill mount. The inside sides of the grill has a flat area with nutserts. The grill will bolt from the inside thru the long flat into the grill sides. It'll be nice and solid. The steel joint I use bent the 90 3/16 x 1 1/8 x 6"
 

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Thank you oneye!

Radiator supports are tacked in-place and am checking the fit of the grill. The grill slides on like a foot in a sneaker. Some good imagineering! Still mocking up, checking the fit before I weld it all in.

I cut it 3 times an it's still too short! Haha LOL
 

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Little more work on grill extension. I may have entioned that the extension is cut out of the stock hood. The levers are the original hood latches. I was going to delete them but they have a lot of character so they are staying. Nothing is going to open but I like the look. I fabbed up the filler panels at the very bottom to wrap around the bottom radius of the grill shell. I think this grill extension is going to be a one off!
 

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