Originally Posted by workingonit

If I were you, I'd not feel secure with the radiator exposed, without a stone guard of some sort of mesh, at least to intercept and/or deflect at least some of the stones, aggregate, and smaller road debris that are on our roads. There are plenty of suppliers that make these for circle racing, and I've seen a few on street/strip drag cars that used a separate transmission cooler ( didn't need one on mine, as it was mounted behind a headlight bucket, after I replaced it with a dual hi/low lamp, but still used a light mesh screen to prevent a bug build-up).

While driving since 1965, I've had a billion stones damage my vehicles, a lower radiator hose and later, a radiator, pierced by road debris. “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”