1967 A Body V8 Fan Shroud and/or suggestions

The 22 inch radiator and shroud is so close to the same size as the fan, The shroud is mostly hole. It captures air in a little 2 inch wide strip down 1 side and corners about the size of your palm. The with without difference is minimal, which sheds some light on why the later models got 26 inch radiators. A shroud makes a huge difference where there's a 26 inch radiator before a 18 to 20 inch fan.
By 1973 the conditions had changed. Idling in traffic jambs, etc.., influenced their engineers to implement this change. My point is... If we can simply cut away some of the support and poke the 26 radiator and shroud in the earlier builds... Why wouldn't we?