How difficult is it to mount a later radiator in an earlier truck?

I know in 85(?) the mounting changed for the radiators, the Champion MC1451 that is highly recommended here is for that style.  I have an 83, and this is the only radiator I've found that's an upgrade over stock.  It's more expensive and I don't know the brand, but it seems okay.  I've found the champion pretty cheap and it's been proven to be good, so my question is how much work is it to mount this radiator on the older style trucks?  I have all the basic fab tools (brake, shears, mills, slip roll, etc) but can't weld on the truck.

Yes, it was ‘85. But you can easily modify an earlier core support to take the later radiator w/o welding. See the 85+ Radiator in Earlier Support tab on the page at Documentation/Cooling System/Radiator Support. It shows how to get the parts from a later support and bolt them on your support.

I have done this later radiator swap, and unfortunately did not save any pictures...I wished I had because the question has been coming up more and more recently. I think the radiator I used was a 1992 or 1994, but I think they're all basically the same from 1985-1996 anyway. My truck was a 1980 F150.

I added a couple U-nuts at the top of the core support which is the same as what is in the later trucks. If I recall correctly, I just cut a couple rectangle holes with a Dremel zip disk, and then slipped the U-nuts in place. That parts is pretty easy...and that takes care of the top. Just set the rad in place and mark the spots.

For the lower mounts, I just made little saddles out of sheet metal and bolted them to the core support. The radiator just sat in these lower saddles and then bolted at the top.

Well this sounds incredibly simple.  I think I'll go this route and make sure to take some pictures.

351FUN wrote

Well this sounds incredibly simple.  I think I'll go this route and make sure to take some pictures.

One thing I should clarify...I forgot to mention I did all of this with the core support out of the truck, so that makes it easier of course.

With the tools you have mentioned, you'll be fine I'm sure.

Here's a picture of the later rad laying on my 1980 core support.



Here's some crude lines with Paint lol...trying to show what I did. U-nut at the top...they literally took minutes to install.
For the bottom I just bent up some 16ga sheet metal I had (it might have been 18ga, I can't remember). I bolted them in place and put a piece of rubber in the bottom of the saddle as a bit of a cushion.

I've done the swap (1980 Support, 1985+ radiator, 1984 Truck)... but I cheated because I had a rotten 1985 support to cannibalize and a (junk but usable) welder:

https://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/Deer-killed-my-Bullnose-Mangled-the-front-tp103398p104572.html

Welder not necessarily required if fabricating from scratch. But this what I did with the situation I was handed.