Topic: 70 Radiator Support

[Angela]

Attached is a photo of the radiator support on my 1970 mach 1. NOTE: the car is upside down on a rotisserie.
There is a hole on the driver's side of the support that appears to have been crudely cut by a previous owner. I'm not very knowledgeable with 69-70 cars, but to the best of my knowledge there should not be a hole where it is shown on the driver's side. I would like help confirming this.

Before I begin the process to make a piece of metal to fill this hole, I want to ask if there is any reason why *any* 1970 Mustang would have a factory hole in this location. I want to be sure this hole shouldn't be here before I spend a lot of time filling it in with steel. Thanks.

[JohnRB]

Angela

See http://www.boss302.com/holes.htm

Its new years morning over here so .....

John

[J_Speegle]

Attached is a photo of the radiator support on my 1970 mach 1. ................

Before I begin the process to make a piece of metal to fill this hole, I want to ask if there is any reason why *any* 1970 Mustang would have a factory hole in this location. I want to be sure this hole shouldn't be here before I spend a lot of time filling it in with steel. Thanks.

Hole in the passenger side it to help cool the battery - allows air into the area where the battery shield would hold and channel the cooler air around th ebattery if so equipped


Hope these help - Guessing its not a Drag Pak car or AC car - you didn't provide any of those details 
That would mean additional holes in the radiator support

[Angela]

Thanks John and Jeff. I'm still confused....

No, it's not an AC car, nor drag pack according to the marti report. However, the link provided above (boss 302) seems to imply there could be additional holes in the driver's side radiator support for oil cooler lines.... cut in various ways depending on the factory line worker of the day? During disassembly, I thought my oil cooler lines were all contained within the engine bay, but my memory could be failing me.

I understand the passenger side holes (battery cooling)... no questions there. I just want more info as to why a hole would be present on the driver's side.... -before I go ahead and weld it shut. :-)

So, are you saying that if no AC and non-drag pack, then NO holes should be present in the driver's side radiator support?

[J_Speegle]

Thanks John and Jeff. I'm still confused....

No, it's not an AC car, nor drag pack according to the marti report. However, the link provided above (boss 302) seems to imply there could be additional holes in the driver's side radiator support for oil cooler lines.... cut in various ways depending on the factory line worker of the day? During disassembly, I thought my oil cooler lines were all contained within the engine bay, but my memory could be failing me. So, are you saying that if no AC and non-drag pack, then NO holes should be present in the driver's side radiator support?

Guess I'm a bit confused also. Asking if "any" is a wide net and most of the time owner focus what is correct for their car and application so thought you were looking for usual/typical/nothing special radiator support for non AC or oil cooler applications so posted that picture. At the Boss site one would expect to find cars with the Drag Pak/oil cooler application

How the cut was made and those details exactly may vary a bit based on where the car was built since those were done in house but of course we don't know that detail about your car.

[Angela]

Jeff, sorry for the confusion... let me see if I can clear things up:
The 1970 Mach 1 in question was built at Dearborn in October 1969. It's not a drag pack car, nor did it originally have AC. It is a 428 and it did have an oil cooler present when I disassembled it. However, I don't recall the oil cooler lines passing through any hole in the radiator support (but that could just be my bad memory)

The hole in question is very crudely cut and does not IMHO appear to have been cut with a hole saw as described in the boss302 link. Due to the very crude nature of the hole, I strongly suspect it's a result of a previous owner making a modification. The car was on the road a mere six years and I'm the first person to disassemble it.

So, I asked about *any/all* reasons why there would be a hole in this location in the driver's side of the radiator support because while I can't rationalize why it should be present on my car, the boss302 link does state that sometimes these holes were created when they shouldn't have been. The same link also states that some holes were very crudely cut and appear jagged. The hole in my radiator support is jagged.

So, I want to make sure I'm not about to weld shut a hole that the factory would have put there. Hence the request for feedback.

Attached is another picture, this time taken with the car oriented as it will be when assembled (rubber side down).

[J_Speegle]

Here are a couple of CJ examples from around that time. Basically its the same cut out made by the same guys that cut it out for AC in all the tens of thousands of Mustangs they built it appears

Hope this helps

[sportyworty]

Your hole is in a different location than factory AC, and oil cooler cars or the Boss article reference so I deleted my prior feedback. Likely was cut when someone added the cooler you mention. Why would the factory take the time to cut the hole if nothing runs through it? It was not stamped like that

[Angela]

Thanks for the additional pictures Jeff.

Yes, I agree, the location of the hole in my car is not the same as the location defined for AC or oil cooler lines. I agree it is highly likely that the hole in my car was created by a previous owner. However, as noted by text and photos from http://www.boss302.com/holes.htm, this hole has been documented in the wrong location, missing when it should exist and present when it shouldn't.
I guess I'll proceed to fill in the hole in my radiator support. I still think there's a small chance this hole was created during assembly, however.

[Brian Conway]

I agree that hole and that location are probably the result of a past owners activities.  For what purpose ?  Who knows.  The original SCJ oil cooler hoses won't work using that location.  The BOSS 302 site does provide the most information, in one place, for the SCJ oil cooler but also states that none of the info is certain.  So was your SCJ oil cooler hooked up ?  Do you have those hoses as they may help with a clue ? I personally have never seen that location utilized for the cooler hoses.  I know on the 69 cars the windshield washer container is located there, engine compartment side, and not available for running any hoses through the radiator support ?  Not suggesting you leave it open but am curious as to what use it was intended for ?  Brian

[Angela]

Hey Brian. No, the oil cooler lines (and most of the rest of the fuel & other hoses) had been disconnected in 1976. The original owner thought he had blown the engine, thus started to unhook the engine but never got any further. The car sat like that until I bought it 35yrs later. Turns out, the engine wasn't blown or damaged.... which is kinda funny now....

Anyway, yes, I'd love to know why he cut the hole we're discussing, but I have no idea. I was hoping the factory had done this and by posting the pictures to this forum, someone might be able to shed some light on it. In the end, I think we've concluded this particular hole wasn't created by the factory line workers. Just for the fun of it, I added one last photo, taken from the engine bay side, to provide a different perspective.

The mystery remains.