Here we go! I looked at the weather forecast for this week, and decided to go ahead and install my recently painted 1965 shroud on the 1965 radiator I'm using. Noted this morning that temperature stayed below 195 F, though in the morning cool, that's no big feat. Still, I expect the clutched 7 blade fan with the shroud meant for a 1965 Plymouth Fury and the 2524984 radiator should cool quite well, leaving the need for the 16" FFD fan for ONLY the hottest days in stalled traffic. It fit together nicely enough, though I plan to use aluminum duct tape to seal the gaps between the shroud and radiator, making for a REALLY effective shroud.
Feast your eyes on mid 1960s State of the Engine Cooling Art!
And from a side angle:
Realize that I would NEVER spend good $$ JUST on obtaining this shroud, but, it came with another of these marvelous old radiators of the same exact production number! I wasn't even seriously EXPECTING to FIND one either, and simply was expounding to the wife on how lucky we were to have even ONE of these when, serendipitously, an eBay ad for the very one popped up when I searched for the spec on the 2524984. We looked, and my Better Half said, "BUY IT!" This radiator now is in the same shop that rodded and sealed up the very one you see in the pics above. Since it looked no worse than ours, I pray this shop CAN seal it well after rodding out the tubes. But, if they can't, we then will send it to US Radiator for a new core.
Again, if constrained by budgetary concerns, one can get a GOOD 22 x 17" aluminum radiator from ECP in Chicago, and use an A Team 16" electric pusher fan for adequate cooling, even in Southwest U. S. urban summers. Be this as it may, ECP suffers the vicissitudes of the "supply chain" these daze; and had NO aluminum radiators for me in the Fall of 2021, when my previous one, complete with the lovely, efficient shroud I made for it from 1" x 3" x 1/4" angle aluminum had all been wantonly wrecked by that evil insurance fraudster. So, being left with no decent option but to attempt rehabilitating the leaky old radiator which came with our ruined '66 Newport, I hired a rare Good Shop which did a SUPERB job for a reasonable price! 2 months of driving with that venerable all copper Mopar radiator convinced us that THIS would be the ONLY option for Gertrude, for so long as we could afford it.
So, when a second of the same exact series showed up on eBay, we snatched it up! Still, had there not been the exact shroud MEANT for that radiator with it, I would never have bothered to get one. Shrouds work as passive airflow directors for a radiator, but one can obtain active supplements for less than half the cost. BUT, if a Good Deal pops up, THEN I say, STRIKE and drive COOOOOL after getting it.