To30 radiator update

Delawaresurfman · Nov 14, 2016

Today I took the radiator in for repair to a very old school radiator shop near me. As some of you may know the bracket that mounts the radiator needed re soldered. Total cost to resolder the bracket to the sides and top of the radiator, clean the insides and pressure test it was $45. Cheap by my standards. Now I'm praying that I don't get a call that the radiator is totally shot and it needs recored. There is no reason to think that but it is my luck they blow the thing up, fingers crossed. I'll update further,

miner09 · Nov 14, 2016

That about the price I pay. It's getting harder to find someone that will repair old radiators. They just want to sell you a new one and kids these days don't know or want to work on this kind of stuff.

Delawaresurfman · Nov 14, 2016

Miner, this place has been in business 50-70 years around here. Don't know if he was the owner or not but he sure looked as if he could have been. I dropped it off around 10 am and he said it could possibly be done today if not I could pick it up tomorrow. Hope to reinstall it Friday or Saturday. We had our first frost last night so I want to get it buttoned back up for the winter.

Tom H. · Nov 14, 2016

Your right about that. Those old shops are closing up around here too as new vehicles are made with throw away parts. The electrical shop I used for years closed up because there's no reason to rebuild generators or starters any more, just go to the parts store and buy another throw away part. He had a great setup with a test unit that had to come out of the 30's or 40's, real steam gauge stuff. I wonder where that went, hopefully not the landfill.

maxwell99 · Nov 14, 2016

I had the radiator on my 1957, TO35 repaired a few years ago at a small local shop,

Old guy said he would not tighten the radiator cap, just run it loose, he said the radiator would cool the motor fine and not built up pressure on the old radiator,

So far it's worked, no problem,

Delawaresurfman · Nov 14, 2016

This radiator is from a 1951 TO30. Should it be painted? It doesn't look like it has any paint on it. Should it be black or Fergie gray? How about the shroud? Thanks,

Tom Bowman · Nov 15, 2016

(quoted from post at 23:34:45 11/14/16) This radiator is from a 1951 TO30. Should it be painted? It doesn't look like it has any paint on it. Should it be black or Fergie gray? How about the shroud? Thanks,

My "old school" radiator shop painted my radiator with flat black radiator paint. Here's a description of one such product I found on the Interweb: "Normal engine paints are too thick for radiator use which will interfere with heat transfer and block air flow over the cooling fins. Also, standard paint tends to flake off metal radiator tanks. Radiator Black is specially formulated to solve these problems and is heat resistant to 300°F."
(Sounds like magic!

)

Your local auto parts store should be able to get it, or just Google "black radiator paint."

As for the shroud, the FENA chart says it should be Fergie Gray. (I painted mine black, because I liked how it looked.)

Delawaresurfman · Nov 15, 2016

Well it's all done and everything checked out fine. Total cost $45. They even painted it with the radiator black paint, so I'm good to go. Now for the install, that's easy peasy, thanks everyone.

To30 radiator update

Delawaresurfman

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miner09

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Delawaresurfman

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Tom H.

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maxwell99

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Delawaresurfman

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Tom Bowman

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Delawaresurfman

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