Making of the Big Black Arse Radiator

[Cathar]

While making up the radiator I took some happy snaps of the process and thought some of you might
appreciate some info on how it was made.

First, take one heater core like this:







I obtained the heater core itself from "Southland Radiators" in Roberna St, in Moorabbin (Melbourne).
It's apparantly out of a late model Toyota Camry, but I didn't ask the year. In stock form the radiator
comes with 3/4" inner diamater barbs, so it needs to be modified with new fittings to take a 1/2" inner
diamater hose, which means fitting a 1/2" outer diameter barb. Barry at Southland Radiators was happy to
do this for me. The thing I liked most about this heater core (other than its near perfect size for taking
2x12cm fans) was that it has the metal mounting rail down the side with holes in it. This makes it perfect
for easily mounting the shroud box, which you'll see later.

In order to make the shroud box itself, I decided on some 0.5mm aluminium plate, 'cos it's easy to bend by
hand and to cut with tin-snips.




What's needed is a 10cm x 80cm strip of metal like so:

[Cathar]

After measuring where to fold, and cutting into the tin for the top pieces of the box, and cutting out a
small piece to make room for the top radiator chambers, we fold the top fan mount flaps over:



Be careful to alternate the height of the folds slightly to allow the flaps to overlay one another without
bending and clashing against one another.

Once the fan mount flaps are done we can start fold the box proper. I used a piece of wood to assist in
achieving clean fold lines.



Once folding is complete I drilled some holes to bolt the edges of the box together, which gives us
something that looks like the following:



Notice that the holes for the fans haven't been cut to size yet.



Now we have to drill the fan mounting holes. I just sat the fans on top, marked the holes and drilled them
out, and then did a mock dry-run of the final assembly. This allows to to find out just how much I've
misaligned the fan mounting holes and widen them to fit.

[Cathar]

Once the mock construction is done which allowed me to mark the edges of the fans so I can cut the fan flaps
to the correct size and just leave the mounting tabs. This results in the finished raw box shape like this:



Here's where the side rails of the radiator come into play. The water tubes of the radiator start about 1cm
back from the rails. Using some 10mm self-tapping screws and some brass washers to ensure the screws don't
go too deep, and carefully measuring and drilling the box mount holes, the box shroud is then easily bolted
onto the radiator:





Now comes the painting. It's no good painting onto tarnished metal so first this must all be cleaned off, as
well as any and all pencil marks left on the shroud box from measuring. Any paint will simply not stick to
dirty areas. It might be time to scroll back to the top and check out what the radiator looked like when I
got it, and what it looks like after preparation for painting. I used a Jex pot scouring cloth for scrubbing
away any tarnishing and cleaning up the metal.

[Cathar]

I used glossy black car engine spray paint 'cos it doesn't need priming when applied to clean surfaces and
looks nice. About 3 coats is needed with about 1 hour drying time between each coat. Here's the radiator
and box drying after the final coats were applied:





Once the paint is completely dry (takes ages with glossy paint - in hindsight I'd recommend using a matte
black paint, and following up with a gloss overcoat if gloss is desired), it's time for the final assembly:









I used the 120mm variable speed Enermax fans 'cos I wanted the golden grills for that nice Gold and Black
look, and the fans come with a variable speed pot attached which makes for easy adjustment for your level
of noise tolerance.

Hope you enjoyed this guide, and hope it may prompt you to try your own mods. This is the first time I've
ever worked with metal since High School 20 years ago, and the first time I've picked up a can of spray
paint and used it.

Cheers,

Cathar.

[Nobes]

Originally posted by Cathar
This is the first time I've
ever worked with metal since High School 20 years ago, and the first time I've picked up a can of spray
paint and used it.

DUDE you need to get around more LOL

nice work cathar for a metal work noob.
or for anybody for that matter

[plasticsurgeon]

I like your work. Very tidy indeed.

Can I possibly suggest cutting those pesky little 10K linear pots off the enermax variables and hooking up to some chunkier ones mounted on the fan bus/case for easy access? It might be just me, but I can't be bothered finding a Phillips head every time I wanna listen to music. Just reaching down and giving my knob a tweak is so much easier

[Step]

Damn, thats sweet.

Should start selling them

[Cathar]

Originally posted by Step
Damn, thats sweet.

Should start selling them

I wonder if HWLabs would be upset if I called it the "Black Arse Xtreme"?

[StopShootingMe]

Reckon the paint would affect the colling at all? Or maybe we'll accept the theory that black radiates heat better...?

Sweeet looking job there, Cathar. I dont know what it looks like up close but if I saw that on a retailers web site id be damn interested.

[Step]

Sweeet looking job there, Cathar. I dont know what it looks like up close but if I saw that on a retailers web site id be damn interested.

Yep, looks very professional.

[pippin88]

Originally posted by Cathar


I wonder if HWLabs would be upset if I called it the "Black Arse Xtreme"?

What are they going to do. Sue you for inventing a product name that included your original name to extra infor. Big Arse + Lack + shroud = extreme. Therefore Black Arse Extreme.

Nicely done by the way.
Whats the dimensions and could you find out more about make and year etc. of radiator and the car it came out of.

[Cathar]

Originally posted by StopShootingMe
Reckon the paint would affect the colling at all? Or maybe we'll accept the theory that black radiates heat better...?

Sweeet looking job there, Cathar. I dont know what it looks like up close but if I saw that on a retailers web site id be damn interested.

The paint won't affect cooling by any significan't margin. The bulk of the cooling is done by air-flow over the copper micro-fins and they aren't painted except for maybe the outer 0.5mm just enough to give them an appearance of being black.

Up close the radiator/heater core looks absolutely smick (if I say so myself). The paint job on it is better than my old Black Ice Xtreme. The shroud itself suffered minor some paint runs and blemishes due to my learning process. If I were to repeat this again (as I will be) that too will look excellent.

The only real downside to it is the sharp inner edges from cutting with the tin snips which can (and do) cut skin if you're not careful when handling it without the fans installed.

[Cathar]

Originally posted by pippin88


Whats the dimensions and could you find out more about make and year etc. of radiator and the car it came out of.

Assembled dimensions without fans is 27cm x 15cm x 8cm.

The car is a Toyota Camry. I'll ask what year.

[pippin88]

Where did you get the sheeting. How much was it.
Does it bend easily. If you knocked it would it dent?

[Rampage101]

Originally posted by pippin88
Where did you get the sheeting. How much was it.
Does it bend easily. If you knocked it would it dent?

Originally posted by Cathar
'cos it's easy to bend by hand and to cut with tin-snips