cbartonbrown

The 2 “towers” on top of my 67 cutlass supreme (330) fan shroud broke - the towers connect to the horizontal, metal radiator cover through 2 bolts. This breakage is extremely common, right? What do owners do to address this? There are no originals in correct condition, correct? The OPGI part is a poor substitute and it at least ¾” too short top to bottom measurement.

I’m going to rebuild my bolt-connecting “towers” with POR15 and some tin/rivets



A picture of what I call the tower is attached. Does the 442 use the same part?

Any ideas?

therobski

The shroud itself is plastic correct?

cbartonbrown

yes, i think it is plastic. It's not rubber, but it could be some poly-something or carbon. You can twist the piece, but it's firm.

RandyS

I have had luck repairing one of those with fiberglass mat and resin. Mine did not break where yours has, but it had a pretty big split and I was able to get a nice smooth patch. One nice thing about using fiberglass is that you can sand it after it dries, or even apply glazing.

HX3

Picture of radiator shroud I purchased for my '67 442. I decided afterwards to go with aluminum radiator and electric fans. From what I have read, shroud is same as Cutlass.

cbartonbrown

Thanks, RandyS for the fiberglas reco. I think that is a good idea.

HX3- yes, that looks like mine. Do you still own it? Would you want to sell it? Where did you get it?

therobski

Plastic-yes sir just making sure. On my 67 I had years ago the original shroud, the bottom cracked. Bought the fiberglass replacement-sent it back, fit was really bad. Buddy of mine had a great idea and it works-get a soldering gun and a piece of plastic and "weld the broken pieces together" using the piece of scrap plastic-it melts and "plastic welds the pieces together". it does not take much and if you want to, you can sand it and paint it and you will never know what you did!. The down side is that your soldering gun tip cannot be used again for soldering aluminum-gets corroded with plastic. To bad your not close by I have everything you need-Robski....

therobski

X2 RandyS Fiberglass mat will work too. Done repairs with that material as well.

cbartonbrown

Therobski- I like your idea. I'll need to find some scrap plastic. Thank you.

This is a great forum with great help.

cbartonbrown

Yes, i would think fiberglas would work well.

In the Body Manual i saw the bottom of the shroud is supposed to be retained with rubber, not a bolt. It's a small drawing but i think it's supposed to be rubber. This would solve the problem of twisting of the shroud between the upper and lower metal body parts.

therobski

I found a small piece of junk plastic trim laying around-takes very little. Although the repair was on the bottom of the shroud and not a show piece, I got good at it ( its not ROCKET science) and it was fun to me. By the time I sanded it a bit and repainted the shroud in mat black it looked good as new and the plastic weld is strong..

cbartonbrown

Thanks so much for the idea. It sounds easy and I like easy after spending the whole summer rehabbing my engine bay.

oldcutlass

If you google plastic welding kits you'll find a lot of different offerings from cheap (under $50) to really expensive.

cbartonbrown

Thanks, Eric. I didn't know that. Good tip.