I'm an idiot...radiator repair?

Hey guys,
While hauling a big pile of parts (in a borrowed truck ) I had made a boo boo. I had an excellent condition ECJ radiator in back, and some other stuff shifted into it on the way home . The damage was relativly small, but it punctured two of the tubes and took out about a 2x3" square of fins. I'm so PO'd at myself right now...this thing was darn near perfect. The one that came with my '55 is hashed, so I was really looking forward to using this one. After looking at the cost of a replacement, I don't even think that's an option. I've repaired a couple of radiators in the past (with damge 10x worse than this) but I'd really rather have one that's not messed up at all.

Anyone here ever have one re-cored by a shop, and if so what kind of price tag did it have? A $300 replacement just wasn't planned in my budget for this project. Sometimes being stupid is expensive.

 

I had mine re-cored. It cost me somewhere around $135. 2 weeks later, 15 to 20 minutes into my first run, the towbar, which was not secured, came flying down while driving on a dirt road and flexed the frame and the fan shredded my newly re-cored radiator . You said it, being dumb is expensive. Well any ways, its around $140 give or take. Shop around. Good luck.

 

I did something similar - put a hole in my truck's radiator with the manifolds. I was removing them by myself and using the strap/2x4 on the shoulder method. They swung over and tapped the radiator. Fortunately (?) the radiator was falling apart, with the core separating from the frame, so it wasn't much of a loss.

Moral: protect the radiator if there's any chance of damage.

I patched it with some LiquidSteel, but later had the radiator recored with a 3-row core, replacing the original 2-row.

 

I had mine recored to a 3 row back in August for $260. IIRC they wanted $220 to recore to a 2 row. Very happy with the results, they even reinforced the lower radiator outlet tube.

 

Hate to admit it, but I've done much worse!

 

If it is just a small spot that got the damage, and cost is an issue. there is a temporary fix: Take some needle nose pliers and cut the two tubes. Twist them back and crimp the heck out of them. If the radiator has a small hole in the holding tank, I've had good luck with JB Weld. The stuff works.

 

Thanks for the responses guys. I'll probably try soldering it...I've fixed much bigger damage on my truck radiator before (4 core radiator jumped out of the bracket and onto the fan). I'll have to call around and see what a re-core would cost. I'm sure just repairing it will work, but I'm still pretty mad that it has the damage...it was really nice before I got it. That, and that was money that could be spent on somthing else for it .
Turns out I wasn't done there though...I'll post here in a minute about my next rampage of stupidity.

 

why not just shop around for a replacement aluminum one. I bought my 3 core aluminum for only 185 brand new. I could look up the guys number if you are interested. Way better than what was in there before. Needed it after I hit a rut so hard that my crap old body shifter up so far that the fan ate through my lower radiator output tube. Good luck either way.