Wellllllll. Got my rad back today. Snowstorm last week had everyone in a tizzy and crap got pushed back. Oooh, it looks so purty. He even painted it for me with some of that thar radiator black paint. I asked him if it was just regular enamel paint, he said no, that's likely not the best thing for it. But he did say even if you used enamel, it would likely be ok for the application as OEM systems are typically adequate, but he also said if you're having issues with overheating or using a too-small radiator, then you want all the heat transfer you can get. I almost wish he hadn't have painted it, because I wanted to do some serious cleaning/prepping on it and paint it myself. But maybe not. If you've ever seen an NOS radiator for these cars, they weren't all that great asthetically, either. He also told me that he's repaired plenty of those all-aluminum radiators. He said they seem to be more prone to leakage. Never said why, though.
New neck. boiled out and rodded, any leak/suspect points resoldered, neck installed, and pressure tested, then painted- all for $175. Looks a whole lot better inside.
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Interestingly, he never bothered to pound out the ding on the driver side tank while he had it off. I forgot to even mention that. I'll have to comb the few areas the fins got mushed somehow during installation. The radiator has never been out of the car until now, and a few of the fins were already mushed as you can see.
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Looks pretty good on the front side. It helps that the A/C condenser and a plastic screen door replacement was tied up behind the grille area to help keep bugs from smashing every fin flat.
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Soon it will be time to insert my "c-o-ck" in this radiator.
🙂 Hey, it says so right on the box!
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I need to put on the cap too.
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