55-59 standard heater cores........options?

[NW Task Force]

Today I confirmed my leak on the passenger side interior..............coolant on the floorboard. Yup, it appears that one of the heater tubes has a small crack where it attaches to the tank. I figured it would be a no biggie, hop online and order a new one..........WRONG! These frickin' things are considered obsolete and it seems that nobody reproduces them. I just can't believe this, especially since 50's era cars & trucks are extremely popular among the classic car populous. ????? weird. Now I have gathered that a person must go visit a local radiator shop and pay out some $$$ to have these little guys refurbished. Anyone else run into this issue? My heater is the standard, not the deluxe. I visited a local radiator shop this afternoon. I was quoted someplace between $200-$300 to refurbish it.

[dwcsr]

Originally Posted by NW Task Force

Today I confirmed my leak on the passenger side interior..............coolant on the floorboard. Yup, it appears that one of the heater tubes has a small crack where it attaches to the tank. I figured it would be a no biggie, hop online and order a new one..........WRONG! These frickin' things are considered obsolete and it seems that nobody reproduces them. I just can't believe this, especially since 50's era cars & trucks are extremely popular among the classic car populous. ????? weird. Now I have gathered that a person must go visit a local radiator shop and pay out some $$$ to have these little guys refurbished. Anyone else run into this issue? My heater is the standard, not the deluxe. I visited a local radiator shop this afternoon. I was quoted someplace between $200-$300 to refurbish it.

The problem with the heater core in these trucks is that there were about 5 different heaters you could get all with a different core. post up a picture maybe some one has a spare they can part with

[57chevyman]

Originally Posted by NW Task Force

Today I confirmed my leak on the passenger side interior..............coolant on the floorboard. Yup, it appears that one of the heater tubes has a small crack where it attaches to the tank. I figured it would be a no biggie, hop online and order a new one..........WRONG! These frickin' things are considered obsolete and it seems that nobody reproduces them. I just can't believe this, especially since 50's era cars & trucks are extremely popular among the classic car populous. ????? weird. Now I have gathered that a person must go visit a local radiator shop and pay out some $$$ to have these little guys refurbished. Anyone else run into this issue? My heater is the standard, not the deluxe. I visited a local radiator shop this afternoon. I was quoted someplace between $200-$300 to refurbish it.

if you have a heater core that you can refurbish, youre doin good! I bought my 57 truck without a heater core . then I found out that the heater core is one of the very few parts you cant get from a catalog. $200 sounds about right. Do you need the valve too? you can get that reproduction for around $75

[buggy5872]

I have the heater core from a 64 nova in mine. I think we had to use the top tank off of mine becuase the tubes were not correct. It was 1997 when I did it. The core size was the same and availalble back then. It was the cheapest way to do it but my friends dad had a radiator shop so it was easy to switch the top tank.

[OrrieG]

This has been discussed before but I will repeat. When mine puked I went to the radiator shop and found one that would fit in the space without the control valve, modified the in and outlets, and ran an inline control valve that I manually opened and closed depending on the season. If you search and find the previous thread it has photos, etc of solutions.

[NW Task Force]

At this point, I am still looking at options for fixing my leaking heater core. My local radiator shop never called me back on a quote after measuring it (been a week). I have a local classic truck parts "collector" going through his inventory to locate one. Anyone know of a source? Here is what I got..............

[dwcsr]

get hold of Bowtie bits. They have rebuild heaters so I think they may have a core

[NW Task Force]

Originally Posted by dwcsr

get hold of Bowtie bits. They have rebuild heaters so I think they may have a core

Cool. I will check them out. Thanks!