Re: 55-56 Radiators

Posted by Kevin AZ On 2010/6/24 20:58:31

Keith. Most of them fires are far away near Flagstaff about 240 miles north. Five years ago we lost much beautiful forest in the Santa Catalina Mountains immediately above my home here in Tucson.

RE: radiator. I got very lucky. When I disassembled my 400, I removed the old radiator and stored it here at the house. The upper tank was dented and it had a defacement on the interior side, so I decided not to use it. The rad on the '55 part Patrician looked great so I had it re-cored and eventually installed it on the 400. Then, shortly after firing the car and getting it ready for the road, I thought it was leaking and brought it back to the shop. The shop assurred me that the radiator was fine but only to run a 3 lb cap! They showed me under pressure that the pretty rad flexed under pressure at about 11 lbs. I decided to run a 7 lb cap and I got some premature venting still. So, I slept on it and became concerned that it would have to go due to extreme heat conditions here in the desert. The shop (and I do trust them) said I was looking at about 500-600 for a completely custom radiator. They asked me to bring the old dented and defaced radiator so they could make measurements. That was this last Monday.

On Wednesday, the fellow called me and said to come by the shop. When I got there he informed me that the old dented and ugly rad had been re-cored and it was a well built HD rad except for the tank and defacement. It also was holding 20 lbs pressure when tested. The fellow told me he could do the cosmetics and make it look better and it would work just fine. I was charged $50.

I picked it up yesterday and I'm planning on installing it this weekend. I'll post a couple of pics in a couple of minutes. I'm planning on running a 12-13 lb cap now and hoping to sleep better.