Adding a Fan Shroud
I know exactly what your dealing with, as I have the same type of radiator an ECP for 74 A body. Something like this. The aluminum brackets would work. Making them out of steel sheetmetal would be even better from a vibration cracking standpoint. 19ga steel sheet should be fine. If you do make them from the same aluminum as the shroud, make sure your bend is against the grain of the aluminum, NOT with the grain of the aluminum. If you bend them with the grain of the aluminum they will be weaker, and will crack and fail in short order. This is how I would make them and stagger pattern the rivets. If going this route use steel pop rivets not aluminum. 1/8" diameter ones should work if JB weld bonding everything. I play w aircraft aluminum structures for a living. Vibration causes lots of failure points in aluminum. Tuck the brackets inside the shroud like my pic shows so all you see is the staggered rivet pattern. If you make a template out of metal with your pattern you can duplicate it in 4 locations on the shroud to make it identical. Many smaller fasteners will have more strength than 1 or 2 larger ones in this application.
I know exactly what your dealing with, as I have the same type of radiator an ECP for 74 A body. Something like this. The aluminum brackets would work. Making them out of steel sheetmetal would be even better from a vibration cracking standpoint. 19ga steel sheet should be fine. If you do make them from the same aluminum as the shroud, make sure your bend is against the grain of the aluminum, NOT with the grain of the aluminum. If you bend them with the grain of the aluminum they will be weaker, and will crack and fail in short order. This is how I would make them and stagger pattern the rivets. If going this route use steel pop rivets not aluminum. 1/8" diameter ones should work if JB weld bonding everything. I play w aircraft aluminum structures for a living. Vibration causes lots of failure points in aluminum. Tuck the brackets inside the shroud like my pic shows so all you see is the staggered rivet pattern. If you make a template out of metal with your pattern you can duplicate it in 4 locations on the shroud to make it identical. Many smaller fasteners will have more strength than 1 or 2 larger ones in this application.
