all of my parts are in, and much to my chagrin all of the books i ordered to aid me in my quest to replace the rotted radiator core support are of NO use. they don't even MENTION the core support!!! wtf?!?!?!

tomorrow 730 am is the start of do or die day. any help on this replacement will be greatly appreciated, even if it's a quick rundown of 'start with this then move onto that.' doesn't have to be crazily specific. im semi-mechanically inclined, i just don't want to remove extra sh*t.

it's a 1995 f150 xlt, 5.0 302 automatic with A/C.

my plan is:

disconnect negative terminal
drain and flush radiator
remove radiator/tubing
remove grille
remove headlights
remove headlight bezel
remove radiator core support

replace all of the above with NEW PARTS except the radiator/tubing.
fill radiator with new coolant - 50/50 mix.

what do ya'll think?!

 

sounds like you know what your doin when you get into it you should be able to see what you need to do

 

Do you mean the radiator support that is bolted to the fenders and the frame bushings?

 

pretty sure thats what hes talkin about somethin like this

 

Is that also called a "header panel"? Just asking.

 

yeah guys, thats exactly it. i hope it isn't too hard to remove, kinda figured i might have to remove the fenders, but have been PRAYING i don't have to.

 

I replaced mine last year. I had to take off my fenders. However my truck was completley rusted together. You should be able to just loosen them and they should slide apart. There are a few pegs that are part of the fender that slide into the radiator support. The polyurethan spacers are a pain to unbolt if their even slightly rusted. I ended up cutting the body mounts off and welding new ones on. I hope you don't have to go through that.

 

8 am saturday to 230 am today with the help of my father. yeah, it took THAT long. a few beer breaks and snacks along the way... toss in some good ol' head-scratchin moments and you find yourself with a fine day.

the hardest parts were figuring out how to take off the freaking headlight bezels (thanks to this forum for providing the answer!!) and the system that mounts the support to the frame - yeah. freaking rusted solid. had to use a cutting wheel to cut the head of that bolt in half then i beat it with a chisel until the whole unit popped off.

thanks for everyone who helped with advice and not to mention that my dad was an air force crew chief and im pretty mechanically inclined, we still had a hell of a time doing this without a manual that describes HOW to do it.

oh yeah. my stupid airbag lights keep coming on. had to disconnect them in order to take everything off. snapped a few bolts along the way - does ford supply these bolts at all?!?