OK honorable parts-swap Gurus, I've been having cooling issues on my '63 2 door LeSabre and a friend of mine said I could have the shroud, fan and radiator out of his A/C equipped '62 4 door LeSabre. Before I pull the parts, will they fit?? My 2 door has no AC, a 2 row radiator, no shroud, just the metal piece on top, and a 4 blade fixed fan. The 4 door has factory AC, a 3 row radiator, shroud and 5 blade clutch equipped fan. Man, if I thought it was fairly simple, I'd haul the whole car home and put the AC in my LeSabre... THANKS, Hunter
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say yes, they should work. Considering full-sized ('61-'64) Buick's shared most of the under-the-sheet metal parts and the standard engine in '62 and '63 was the 401, it stands to reason that the radiator mount, etc. would be the same. As I don't currently own either a '62 or '63, perhaps someone else might have better info, and I will be curious to know if I'm right about that.
I'm headed over at 0600 to pull them. I'll let you guys know! THANKS, Hunter UPDATE Its an untouched, absolutely COOKED by the Arizona sun, bone stock '62 LeSabre four door with AC. Shroud is cracked, bought some JB Weld, snagged the pulleys as well for AC later perhaps, 5 blade clutch fan looks good. Radiator is at the shop being tested. It was pretty rough form sitting for 35 years. Still its Harrison equipment and can be rebuilt….
not sure if you're planning to install the factory ac into a non-factory car or just swap the radiator and shroud. I know on most cars the firewall is completely different on non-ac vs ac cars. You will need to make significant modifications to do that swap....at least that's the way it is on my 65.
I only wanted the radiator, fan and shroud, but I admit I was considering the AC swap for a moment, but quickly realized that you are correct: its WAY too much work to put 50 year old AC in this car from a '62. Why would you do that when Vintage Air is available anyway? Worked on the car today and I can't believe how much they changed things from year to year. Radiator is the same width and will drop in, I snagged the pulleys (much smaller diameter for faster fan and water pump speed) and shroud from the '62 as well. The upper radiator mount is entirely different, as is the core support. The lower radiator support member is entirely different, as such, there's no mounting holes for the shroud's lower bolt brackets. I'll have to modify the upper radiator mounting bracket (welding, cutting, drilling), bead blast and paint glossy black. Radiator from the '62 was original Harrison equipment and is going to require a lot of work. I like the brass radiators better than aluminum anyway, so I'll call it an "investment". Good news is that the 5 blade clutch equipped fan is going to work nicely and I'll figure out how to attach the lower shround brackets. Have to custom change the belts with several trips to the local NAPA. Far more in it than I had hoped, but since it was overheating here in AZ at 98 degrees, I figure its ALL certainly worth it and I don't have a choice anyway. Got to do something…. Hey, this is the FUN part, right? Thanks for the input gents. Hunter
JB welded the cracked - through shroud, installed new studs into the H2O pump, took my OEM top radiator mount to the local welder for him to MIG a bolt onto it for the top shroud mount. Simple fix. Bought a pair of springs at ACE to pull the bottom of the shroud into the radiator tight. '62 lower shroud brackets are entirely different and wouldn't work without some serious modification. Smaller H2O pump pulleys, crank pulley, 5 blade clutch fan, shroud, all rattle canned glossy black. Turned out very nice. 'Round town temps are almost 20 degrees cooler. Highway temps still creep up pretty quickly though the HOT light never came on, even climbing long hills (almost 2000' feet in elevation) in 97 Arizona-Dry-Heat degrees. Man, that 5 blade fan just ROARS the air through there. Had to put new belts on with the pulleys. No surprise there. The '62 donor car had a dounble set of belts running the AC unit, H2O pump and generator with a single belt for the power steering. I ran a single new NAPA belt for both and have a pulley slot for AC in the future maybe Radiator shop called and said, as expected, that the OEM Harrison 3 row was toast but that the tanks were good and a new core would be about $300 total. I told him to go ahead. Call it a "cool" investment. Get it? Happy with the work, enjoyed doing it. When the 3 row rad comes in, I'll be all set. I hope. Hunter
