The Honda FWS1000 was unconventional in many ways at the time and so too was the radiator. With a big 1000cc V-Four motor stuffed into a tiny chassis there isn’t much room to spare for a large radiator to cool the 150hp motor particularly when there is a front cylinder bank wanting to kiss the front wheel at full bump.

Honda’s radiator design was to connect three cores together that wrapped around the front cylinder bank with an interconnecting tube joining the bottom tanks. This ensured the radiator was as compact as possible whilst maintaining sufficient cooling area.

We checked what available space we had by mocking up the radiator pattern in timber. When we were happy with sizes and clearances we specified the core sizes to be manufactured by Adrad Radiators in South Australia. In the meantime the header tanks, filler necks, hose spouts, mounting hardware etc. were fabricated and machined to suit.

The individual components were welded together into a single part and then refitted to the frame into the correct position so that the mounting bosses could be located and welded in place. When the motor is up and running and everything checks out OK they’ll be painted black like the originals.