Radiators and cores

[Rodney Bullock]

I dropped of a radiator I got from a guy today to have it flow resred and painted. The shop said the radiator flowed 5 gallons a min. It also leaked before they put any pressure on it. I paid good money thinking it would give me some service. The shop told me that if I had put that thing in my car it would have ruined my motor. So I had to have it recored. I had a thunderbird radiator done about 8 months ago cost..300.00 They said that the cost of the stuff they use to weld the tanks on cost 1.59 around, now it cost 5.00 the cost of recoring this radiator will be 368.00. I am wondering is it because of the war or is metal costing more period. As it stands now you just can't get a nos radiator, they all are just frames needing recoring. No one is making radiators for old cars or are they?

[Don Coatney]

Rodney;

What car is this for?

[greg g]

Which car. I have found that mid 60's chevelle small block radiators will fit in my Study truck. Also mustang rads are about the same size. These are available from the aftermarket for less than 200.00.

[Captain Neon]

The cost of materials is rising because the value of the dollar is dropping. The Federal Reserve is producing dollars at an alarming rate. Money is just another commodity. When the supply is plentiful and increasing vs. a constant commodity like metal it takes more dollars to purchase the same amount of metal.

Take a look at the US dollar compared to the euro and the Canadian dollar also look at the price of precious metals (gold, silver, platinum) over the past year. There is a very noticeable uptick in the price of these static commodities.

My wife works in jewelry and has commented to me about the ever-rising cost of jewelry because of the rising value of gold and silver. If you are in a position to be putting a little away for a rainy day, I strongly recommend buying silver coins (bullion or circulated) as they will maintain their value better than putting US dollars in a saving's account.

[Don Coatney]

The Federal Reserve is producing dollars at an alarming rate.

The Fedreal Reserve Bank does not produce dollars. Engraving and printing does that. The Fedreal Reserve Bank shreds and destroys (bank notes) dollars. My job is to maintain and upgrade the machines that do this shreading:cool:

Dont believe what you see in the movie "Mad Money" The shreading is not done the way it is shown in the movie.

[55 Fargo]

Don, we have or had a "Bank Of Canada" location here in Winnipeg, they are like the Federal Reserve Bank, they also shred money, or used to. I alwasy thought that would be a difficult job shreading money

[Captain Neon]

Most currency comes into being when it is lent by the Fed. Very few US dollars actually exist as paper dollars (banknotes). The Bureau of Printing and Engraving produces banknotes, but the Fed places the order. M3 is the indicator of the money supply and it has little to nothing to do w/ how many banknotes are printed. The Fed is in the business of issuing dollars per the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. The US government no longer issues our currency they are merely a contractor for producing coins (tokens) and banknotes. Most currency circulates by means of checques, and electronic transactions. There is no vault some where full of paper to account for all of the US dollars in circulation. The gold in Ft. Knox hasn't backed the US dollar in over 30 years.

[Don Coatney]

Don, we have or had a "Bank Of Canada" location here in Winnipeg, they are like the Federal Reserve Bank, they also shred money, or used to. I alwasy thought that would be a difficult job shreading money

One of the jobs I did this past summer was to refurbish several shreading machines that are destin for delivery to the "Bank of Canada".

Most currency circulates by means of checques, and electronic transactions. There is no vault some where full of paper to account for all of the US dollars in circulation. The gold in Ft. Knox hasn't backed the US dollar in over 30 years.

Very true that most transactions are electronic. This trend will someday eliminate currency but not in our lifetime. There is more US currency (bank notes) located off shore than here in this country. Problem is that many of these off shore bank notes are counterfit. These counterfit notes are stored in off shore vaults and the countries storing them are often times the ones who print the counterfit notes. Worst thing that happened in this country was going off the gold standard. This happened well over 30 years ago.

[Captain Neon]

Yes, I agree it was a horrible mistake to disconnect our currency from gold. We actually got off the gold standard in 1913, but the deed was officially finalised by Tricky Dick in the late 60s or early 70s. The year 1972 pops into my head, but I could be wrong. We had some currency circulating that was redeemable in gold and silver until then. I cannot take a 1920s $1 silver certificate issued by the US government and receive 1 oz. of silver. Tricky Dick decreed that the US government would no longer honour the silver and gold certificates issued by the US government. A US$1 silver certificate is now no different than a Federal Reserve note. I can't get a US 1 oz. silver coin in exchange for the paper.

[oldmopar]

Forget gold and silver invest in Steel buy as many Old Mopars as you can you may not get rich but will have a lot more fun

[ACPaul58]

Are all the radiator shops in everyone else's area like the one near me? When you get there all you find are two old fellows in the far back room playing cards under the only light turned on in the place ( and it's a 25W bulb), no other work is going on anywhere and your told to come back next week. Then when next week rolls around, same scenario. Finally after this go-round week after week your charged $50 to be told your radiator that only needed a leak fixed and otherwise was doing fine needs to be recored at more than twice the price of a replacement one and nothiing can be done for it. Then you get the speel about the Chainese crap the repacments are. The fact is the replacements I can get for my farm tractors are made in Ireland, by the same company that was making them for the OEM 50 years ago.

[55 Fargo]

I would agree there are shops out there that want to make money, and the bottom line is all that is important to there shop and pocket book.

I have a honey comb style rad, I had it boiled out at a rad shop for $25.00, this type of rad cannot be rodded out, so if there is any coating in the zigzag portion of the honey comb core, it is very difficult to clean out. Mine came back pretty darn clean, with good flow, it wasn't all that dirty to begin with.

I had a rad from a 1951 Dodge for a while in my 47 Chrysler, it is a tube and fin design, and is pressurized at 4 lbs. This rad was filthy,leaking and was not cooling worth as $hit.Most shops only wanted to re-core it at $350.00, I found one shop they did the rodding, cleaning and solder repair for around the $100 mark, I shipped this rad to Norway to a member of this forum, it is working good.

Last summer at work, we have a couple of 2 ton trucks that were both 1980s and would boil over immediately upon driving a few miles.Both rads were recored, this brought the coolant temps to normal for both trucks.

So sometimes a repair and/or cleaning can be done, other times a re-coring is necessary.

I have a rad from my 47 Chrsyler parts car, I am going to have it re-cored, it will be $400.00, but the cooling will be great.............Fred

[JerseyHarold]

In the early nineties, when I lived in New York, I found an old-time radiator shop where the guy soldered several leaks, then threw in a scoop of red powdered stop leak as insurance...all for $15. Drove the car several years after that with no problem. Too bad things don't work that way anymore.

[greg g]

The guy who did my heater element flushed it out, pressure tested it and gave it a coat of paint for 20 bucks. He has two light bulbs a 50 watt in the shop and a 25 in the "office". I am going to check in with him to see if he has anything that will fit my stude truck. He has a rack on the wall of the shop with stuff thats been there since his father started the business in tne middle 30's.

[Rodney Bullock]

Don, This is for the hawk, I bought the thing months ago. Fellows, I hear you on the old radiator shops. We had a shop around the corner from that tire shop that burned down. The guy was so great, I remember I took a radiator to him for repair and he fixed it, all the young guys in our area would have their radiators fixed and it would not cost over 20.00. These guys were so talented, they could fix anything. I have a pretty good radiator shop now, the guy I have does not give you a break however his work is one stop shopping. I can get a 3 core and use my old tanks and get modern cooling, IT"S JUST THE PRICE. If this was 25 years ago when my pockets were lean, I could not have these things done. I guess things happen in there own time. I love the old radiator shops, I love the old 1949 taxi they had in the back, they drove it when things were light in the shop.

[Rodney Bullock]

Which car. I have found that mid 60's chevelle small block radiators will fit in my Study truck. Also mustang rads are about the same size. These are available from the aftermarket for less than 200.00.

Greg, you know these stude radiators do not have line connections for trans cooling.

[greg g]

I have an external one I bought as a swap and the chevelle ones do have fitting for trans cooling.

Speaking of which is there any reason why a heater core can't be used for transmission cooling duty. Other that fittings and or pressure limits? How much pressure is there in trans cooler lines, being as they go to the radiator, I'm thinking the pressure is similar to today's coolant system pressures.

[Normspeed]

I got somewhat lucky, I had a honeycomb 53 radiator that looked ok overall, a small leak at a lower corner, and running a little warm. I picked up a freshly recored 53 setup with a beat up looking tank. I kept the honeycomb one in the shed, I think these things will be barn finds for someone some day. But that ugly old recored one sure runs cool.

Once I took my original heater core to a small town mom n pop radiator shop for their opinion on soldering up a small leak. Figured they must know their stuff. Later that day I returned and they said, no sir, it was shot. As soon as we pressure tested it in the tank, it just split apart. Sadly handed it back to me. I thanked them and left...I think they pressure tested it at 15 or 17 lbs., I didn't tell them it was from a zero to 7 lb system, max:rolleyes:

Kept it though...barn find some day...

[BobT-47P15]

We have one of those old style radiator shops here, also. Haven't been

there lately however. The owner's father bought the place in the 1930s

for something like $700 or so. This is the only shop I've dealt with since

moving here in 1968. There is another radiator shop in Mt. Vernon, MO

that will work on the older cars also. I stop by there on occasion to

look at some older vehicle he may have sitting in front while being worked

on.

He boiled out the gas tank on this Chrysler a few months ago....don't

know what he did to the radiator.

Now that same Chrysler is for sale in the front yard of a house near

Monett, MO......along with some other old cars. Strangely, that house

is where a girl I dated during high school used to live. It is now owned

by other people.

Some other cars for sale at that house.

[Don Coatney]

Speaking of which is there any reason why a heater core can't be used for transmission cooling duty.

Greg;

A heater core might be a bit fragile to hang out front in the elements. However an air conditioning condenser should work well. Even one from a house window unit should work.