Need help with cutting hole for 4th gen coolant bottle - Third Generation F-Body Message Boards

BlueZee28 · 08-28-2009, 12:08 AM

If you have cut a hole in your battery tray to make room for a 4th gen coolant bottle/battery tray post up! I need your help, as I'm going to be cutting the hole for mine very soon before I repaint the engine bay. I don't know exactly where to cut the hole to make it fit best, or how big of a hole. Any pointers or tips (pictures are best!) would be great. And if you have some pictures of the cut hole WITHOUT the bottle in place that would be exceptional!

ssean92 · 08-28-2009, 01:11 AM

mine was a trial and error thing, and it is way bigger then I wanted,

BlueZee28 · 08-28-2009, 02:16 PM

Ya I'm hoping to be able to do it one time and only one time. It would be awesome if someone had pictures of how to do it.

CanadianRoots · 08-28-2009, 02:21 PM

It was a royal pain in the @$$... I used a cutting wheel and just kept trimming away at the tray until it fit. It took me about an hour to get it in and its probably a little bigger than it needed to be, but it worked!

BlueZee28 · 08-28-2009, 06:25 PM

Do you have any pictures by any chance? One of the things I am not sure how it works is if the battery tray should sit flush with the sheet metal tray?

shr00m · 08-28-2009, 08:42 PM

If you position it so that the side bolt is in the frame rail and the hold-down bolt is on the upper part of the old battery tray, the 4th gen tray is rigid enough to hold fine. Any other way and the fill tube will hit the fender rail.

I can get some pictures with a ruler next to the hole in a 4th gen that you can print out to actual size to give you a guide.

Kevin D.

BlueZee28 · 08-28-2009, 09:12 PM

Ya that would be awesome. Thanks!

shr00m · 08-29-2009, 02:10 PM

Here you go. I tried to get as straight of a shot as I could. Might give yourself 1/4 to 1/2 inch more just in case. Print it so that 6" in the picture is 6" on the paper, cut it out, instant template.

Kevin D.

BlueZee28 · 08-29-2009, 07:05 PM

Well I got it done today. Thanks for the help. The hole is still a little larger than it needs to be, mostly on the fender side of the bottle, but that's ok. It's hardly noticeable. I need to get a new reservoir now though, because this one has a huge crack in it that I didn't see before. So I didn't even bother with bolting it down or anything.

BrOdBaNd · 10-31-2009, 09:37 PM

I got my 4th gen coolant mod done tonight... Too dark for pics (camera has no flash) but will get pics tomorrow. Surprisingly, my overflow cannister is very snug, I actually had to tap it kinda hard to get it through. Holds my battery just fine as is with no bolts, but am going to add the 2 hold down bolts also.

QUICKCHICKEN · 11-01-2009, 07:56 PM

Kevin can ya post up the specs and info on doing the washer bottle as well? you did yours in your bird and im wanting to do the same.

BrOdBaNd · 11-02-2009, 02:58 PM

Here are the best pics I could get.

BrOdBaNd · 11-02-2009, 02:59 PM

More...

BrOdBaNd · 11-02-2009, 03:02 PM

More....

BrOdBaNd · 11-02-2009, 03:12 PM

Here is a video, lemme know if y'all need anything else.

http://s61.photobucket.com/albums/h8...2-13-44-16.flv

shr00m · 11-03-2009, 10:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by QUICKCHICKEN

Kevin can ya post up the specs and info on doing the washer bottle as well? you did yours in your bird and im wanting to do the same.

I've got pictures up on the build site:

http://www.ms-fbodies.com/jade_ta.htm

Pretty much cut a hole where you want the fill tube to go, remove the center support brace and fabricate brackets to hold the bottle in place, and then cut and strengthen the center support brace until it fits around the bottle.

Kevin D.