Wow. Thanks for the "advice".  You should understand that my wife and I did a frame off on the car ourselves.  That included much of the metal work, as well as plenty of painting (fenders, hood, interior metal, frame, inner fenders, top frame, suspension, etc.....)  The simple fact is that the cost of buying a quart of color, reducer, and the catalyst would have far exceeded the cost of having someone else do it, since any paints, etc i have left over have long since expired.  That and the fact that I dont have my paint booth anymore (which I built, btw), and Ive lately been working 15 hour days, it was a pretty easy decision to me to farm it out.  Ill be sure to check with you next time before I make a decision like this.....

Ron Grove

Wauconda, IL

Nothing to do with leaks and such, but why did you send it to a paint shop for black paint?  Guessing a charge of $30 plus the hassle of taking in and picking up.  DO IT YOURSELF.

Mike, located in the Siskiyou mountains, Southern, OR 292 powered 1946 Ford 1/2 ton, '62 Mercury Meteor, '55 Country Squire (parting out), '64 Falcon, '54 Ford 600 tractor.

I have sworn off buying new radiators when I saw the flimsy stuff they're now selling. The radiator shop I like to go to will put in a new core with the internal fins for the same price as a new radiator. I'll do that every time.

Best regards,



Paul Menten

Meridian, Idaho

rgrove, You and the wife have the right attitude...





Johnson Rod



Southern California

 

I agree 100%!!  Just to be clear, I wasnt the one who said it was her fault.  I absolutely was fine with it being my fault - she volunteered to take responsibility.  I just thought it was funny more than anything else, because at the end of the day, we just had a good laugh about our mistake!  What are ya gonna do?

Ron Grove

Wauconda, IL

   If you have a wife willing to crawl under the car to help with an install of any type I would kind of hold off putting blame on her. She's special and a real keeper.

Missouri Mike

I'd rather be lucky than good.................

    but good ain't bad!!

The cardboard not only saves the radiator core, but it saves the hide on your hands. When you get my age, you don't have much hide to spare.

Kenneth

Fredricksburg, Texas

Paul, I see your not the only one with that idea! Was showed that trick a long time ago. A very simple tech tip.

                          Michael

Michael

Sandy Valley, NV

No, LOL... Dog was in the house, and the 2.5 year old son was with the mother in law in the front yard.... i was fine taking responsibility until she vounteered!

At the end of the day, it doesnt really matter whose fault it was...together, we should have known better!

Ron Grove

Wauconda, IL

Well, I took another look at it and thers no way it could be fixed w/o a recore.  I dug out the receipt from the last time it was repaired, and the shop noted that the upper tank looked swollen, with weakened joints.  I remember now at the time he said that it would probably need to be replaced in a few years ( I was running an OE type 13 lbs cap instead of like an 8 or 9 lbs cap; he said that would potentially cause some distortion of the tank, etc.)  Ill probably just buy a new one and be done with it.  Not sure if I should get one with a trans cooler though (my FOM is air cooled) and just leave the ports plugged in case I ever swap to a modern trans? 

As for the cardboard, thats a great idea... my wife said the same thing AFTER we damaged it!  Now i know for the new one.  I guess the good thing is that my wife admits it was HER fault, as she was under the car pulling/pushing/guiding it into place!  For once, it wasnt just my fault!

Thanks very much to all who replied!

Ron Grove

Wauconda, IL