"Carmine" '79 GMC K15

[LEEVON]

Originally Posted by LT7A

I have just gotten into the idea of repairing radiators whenever possible. It seems so hit and miss with the replacement aluminum plastic ones. And the all aluminum ones are also either not great, or great while really expensive. That one looks to me like the upper inlet needs to be resoldered. That's where the flow seems to emanate from. If that's the case, it might be a cheap fix or something you can do yourself. Eastwood makes paint for radiators that is formulated thin to help maintain airflow. With those fixes, all that is left is to spend about 13 hours with a screwdriver straightening all those little fins, haha.

Yeah I used to do that, but man it's pretty much impossible anymore. I own a shop and we've never been able to have one repaired successfully. There are a couple old radiator shops still hanging on but they never want to do the job, there's always a reason why it can't be don't/shouldn't be done or not cost effective. Last time I inquired about a re-core they said $800 and that was pre-Covid inflation plus they said no guarantee, blah blah blah.

I'll probably just run a plastic and aluminum unit for now (as much as it pains me) and keep this one around just in case I ever have the time to repair it. It weighs a ton which also tells me the core is holding a lot of corrosion.