A radiator cooling plate is something I’ve been thinking about for some time – I remember seeing one on Fensport’s ST205 Celica GT4 at JAE a few years ago. I borrowed one they had for sale, it was too small for my Corolla but it planted the seed. I started thinking about it again when a friend bought one to fit to her Nissan Silvia S15. On my Corolla, the area between the bonnet slam panel and the front grill needs something to help hide the bonnet catch and oil cooler. A radiator cooling plate is the boy for the job – it should also help with directing the airflow to the radiator.
Searching the net showed that a couple of companies made cooling panels for the JDM Toyota AE111 Levin. Photos that I’ve found show that they would probably fit my Corolla with a bit of modification. The problem is that the ones I found have been discontinued and I’ve not been able to find any second hand ones. So it has to be a custom job yet again.
When I had my intercooler pipework done a couple of years ago by Clarkson Engineering in Bridgend, I asked if they would be interested in making a cooling plate for me. I showed them what I wanted and they said that he’d have a go but I didn’t get back to them until recently. I’ve had a cardboard template for maybe a year but not done anything with it. I took the template to them and they made one for me.
The plate needed some fettling to allow the bonnet to close, but there were a few things could have caused this problem. I started by removing the bonnet stay which lies across the plate when it’s not in use and the extra thickness of the plate might have been too much. That didn’t fix it. I then looked at the parts of the catch that is fixed to the bonnet and found that this could have been fouling the plate. I modified the big hole in the plate to allow the catch to work properly and that sorted it. Two holes had to be drilled to fix the front edge of the plate to the top of the grill. The ends of the plate stick out into fresh air where the bodywork is lower than the grill. Clarksons bent these down for me but this showed up the deficiencies in my original template, as the depth of the plate at each end was different. I cut the larger side down to size and adjusted the bend slightly on both sides. That made it a lot better.
As the plate is made from unfinished aluminium
alloy, it’s easily marked so it needs a durable finish to prevent that
happening. The choices are DIY painting, professional painting, powder coating
and anodising. The local anodising company have a minimum order value of £240 so
that rules that out. My DIY painting will probably not produce a finish I’ll be
happy with. I’ve decided on powder coating as I know that will give a durable
finish. The company I used previously for the cam covers, strut brace and air
box could not get hold of the same graphite colour. They had problems getting
that colour last time so this is silver with a clear coat finish.
While I was trying to fit the cooling plate and thinking that the bonnet stay was causing the bonnet not to close, I was contemplating an alternative method of supporting the bonnet while it’s open. Options were a different bonnet stay (maybe like the one on my other Corolla where the stay is located along the inner wing) or using hydraulic/gas bonnet lifters, here the problem would be finding a company that makes them for my Corolla – yet another custom job. I found a couple of companies on the internet and asked SGS Engineering if they could help. They supplied a pair of gas struts with suitable ends. They suggested drilling and tapping a hole where the wing is bolted to the body but there is already a hole there for a fixing bolt. I got four ball ends with M6 threads and used those. Screwed one directly in where I removed the wing bolt, drilled a hole through the bonnet hinge bracket and bolted another in there. Connected the strut and released some gas until I was able to lift and lower the bonnet easily. The bonnet closes correctly with both the struts and the cooling plate in place. (see picture above)
It was years ago that I first saw Climair wind
deflectors on an E11 Corolla and I’ve seen them on a few others since. Finally I
have ordered and fitted a set. Fitting the first one was a real pain even
following the instructions but once I’d discovered the proper technique the
second one went on in less than a minute. The ones I saw had small TRD Racing
Development stickers on them, mine had Climair stickers, which have now been
removed.
The time has come to get some new, good quality
car mats. I’ve been using generic mats for a few years but they never fit
properly so I’ve got some model specific mats from Autostyle. They are excellent
quality and I love the red “Supercharged” logo. I’ll keep the new ones for shows
and meets and use the old ones to use the rest of the time.