What did you do today not on your truck...

[Willowrun]

Originally Posted by mr.mud1

hi,happy to tell you whatever i can.i do all my own rads and have for a while.i have a 39 Chrysler here i was working on til i bought this 32 Ford body a year or so ago but it has one of my rads.my 72 big block Cheyenne Super has one of mine,my 67 Impala wagon had one of mine and so it goes.Rad shops seem to be drying up and disappearing.i know alot of people are using the aluminum rads.that's fine but i don't like them.i feel like as long as i can buy old fashion brass and copper cores,i'll keep doing my own.on a 32 Ford,the rad bolts to the frame and the grille shell bolts to the rad,the grille shell doesn't actually touch the car so i set out to find an original 32 rad,just to have the side rails and top and bottom tanks.i found one on ebay,bought it and had it shipped to my address at the Maine/Canada border and went to get it.what a mess.the man i bought it from put the rad in a box twice as big as the rad,no packing at all and off it went.when i went to pick it up,the box was beat to pieces and the top tank was pushed down about 2 inches and cracked.i thought about how to fix it or find another rad.i couldn't find another rad so i built a little fixture the shape of the top tank and with a small jack and a piece of hardwood,jacked the tank back into shape and soldered it up.i pressure tested the rad before i soldered on the side rails and it didn't have any leaks,now the side rails are soldered on and today i bolted the rad in place.tomorrow i'll take the front fenders off,fit the grille shell in place and then try to fit my new hood but before i paint the rad,i'm going to pressure test it one more time.building rads isn't hard,lots of soldering and fitting and fooling but it's not rocket science.please holler if there's anything else i can help with.

Very cool. Thanks for the explanation and impressive save on the '32 top tank. The Chevy radiator in your pic is pretty if that could be said about a radiator.