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Universal Carnegie was at Hershey again last week, and I am always impressed by their work.


Universal Carnegie Manufacturing 66A Arch Street Ext. Carnegie, PA 15106. Call: 800-867-9554.

I spoke with Brassworks about doing 32 recore. They would get the honeycomb core from England. I was quoted a budgetary price of 1800 to 2200. They claim to do a restoration of the radiator and not just a recore.

I have read where honeycomb are more efficient than tube and fin type. However Brassworks claims they are not as efficient. Also when I asked them about doing the honeycomb vernier, they said that is not desirable as teh veneer would block airflow and reduce cooling capacity because of the verneer thickness. I replied, but if a tube and fin is much more efficient than a honeycomb, then it should out cool the honeycomb. They couldn't answer that question except they would do a vernier for a little of $1K.

Not sure what I'm going to do. Unfortunately this honeycomb radiators can't be rodded out and need to be replaced if you have cooling issues. I have the original honeycomb in my car, and in the 90s the car is not drivable. I also hav e adouble whammy as I live on a hill and pulling that hill in 90 degree weather is not easy on these cars.

I spoke with Universal C and they do HC cores, will advise more when I get a price.

Hello Jim, I do not know what is different on a Std 8 or Su8. I let a local shop to take out the old core. Then the old core was measured (earlier attached drawing). I ordered the core according to this drawing, with the original hexagon film, from the UK supplier. The local shop then mounted the new core together with the top and bottom brass tanks. I also had to silver soldering the bottom tank due to cracks. Odd Moen, Norway

I would like to add my experiences with radiator cores. I have 2x1929 633's and a 1922 126. I restored each of them and the following are my comments on the cores,

1922 126. The core on this core was badly damaged so a new one was essential. In the interests of authenticity I fitted a reproduction honeycomb core. With hindsight I would not do this again. The honeycomb pattern available here in Australia at the time was a 5/16" hexagon which is bigger than the original and therefore has much less surface area. The result is the car tends to overheat in any adverse conditions.

1929 633 Roadster. The original core looked excellent, I took it to a radiator shop with instructions to replace the core with the most efficient modern core available. They checked it and called to say it was too good to replace, excellent flow rate and a few minor leaks which were easly fixed. I was persuaded to stay with the original core and have regretted it ever since. It also overheats under adverse conditions.

1929 633 Sedan, just finished. This time I had a new modern core fitted and this car runs cool all the time. The thermostat is set to open at 140 deg and the car runs at that temperature all the time. i know this temperature is too low and will be correcting it before its next outing.
So for what its worth as much as I like authenticity, if you plan on driving the cars in warm weather then a new modern core is the way to go, and remember that the tanks can be removed and the core rodded clean which can't be dome with the honeycomb core.
Finally, having a new core shaped to replace the original is no big problem its just costly because it takes extra time.

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If your running your car in warmer to hot weather I HIGHLY doubt that your engine is running at only 140 degrees. The thermostat seems to be the most mystical part on a car, and everyone assumes if you run a whatever temperature thermostat then that's the only temp that the engine gets to, totally untrue.

Eric, the situation with a shutter stat is quite different than with an in-line liquid thermostat. You have whatever water flow the water pump provides all the time, regardless of the thermostat setting which simply regulates the air intake across the core.

So you're trying to tell me that in this particular car on a 100 degree day after an hour driving the engine's temperature is only 140 degrees?

And yes, I fully understand how a shutter stat works.

That wasn't intended to be controversial! The car with the new core has just returned from its first run a 3,400 tour which was mostly in mild weather. It has a very effective radiator shutter thermostat and an inline thermostat. On the cold mornings it ran at 140 deg F. On the few occasions when the ambient was around 80 F and we were climbing a steep hill it still ran at about 140 F. This is not an assumption it is measured with rebuilt a recalibrated temperature gauge in the cylinder head and touching the head confirmed that it was running too cool. Also the engine is probably not fully run in from a complete overhaul.
Both of the other cars would have boiled under the same conditions.
OK so I need to drive it hard on a long hill when it is 100 ambient and I have no doubt it will go above 140 but the point I am trying to make is that a new modern core is so much better than a honeycomb core that I would not contemplate anything else and if funds permitted I would put modern cores in the other 2 cars.
The in line thermostat will now be set to open at about 170 F.

That's an interesting about the inline thermostat. I had a 1912 Cadillac and it had a rebuilt recored radiator with a modern core. The previous owner used an inline thermostat because it ran too cool.

Anyway, I'm debating whether to go with a honeycomb core or with a modern core. I drive the car a lot so it would seem a modern core would be the way to go and just live with the judging deduction which I do very few shows.