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Recommendation for Brass Radiator Shop in Houston?
Posted: Sun Sep 26, 2021 2:40 am
by ivaldes1
Hi I have a 1915 brass radiator, round tube. It is most definitely leaking somewhere on the right side. Steady drip, drip about a gallon in 3 hours. It might be leaking somewhere else on the left. It isn't the hoses. Will any radiator shop be able to fix this? If not is there a preferred one in Houston, Texas?
Re: Recommendation for Brass Radiator Shop in Houston?
Posted: Sun Sep 26, 2021 10:33 am
by Steve Jelf
Not just any radiator shop. You need somebody with experience in repairing these old timers. Usually that means a person of the elderly persuasion who has been in the game a long time. An important question before repairing an old radiator: does it work? More precisely, is it still intact enough to cool as efficiently as it did a century ago, or have decades of vibration caused the fins to separate from the tubes so that it doesn't radiate like it used to? If the latter is the case but the tanks and other non-core parts are sound, you want a recore. If this is for a show car, which needs to be as "correct" as possible, that will call for a round tube core. If the car is for go, not show, flat tube is best.
Houston is the fourth largest city in the country, so I expect you will find at least one radiator shop with experience in old time radiators. I've found them in much smaller towns like Springfield IL and Wichita.
Re: Recommendation for Brass Radiator Shop in Houston?
Posted: Wed Sep 29, 2021 2:00 am
by ivaldes1
Fondren Radiator fixed it. It had 4 leaks. They had to cut the lower bracket in half to get to one of the leaks then reweld. So far so good.
Re: Recommendation for Brass Radiator Shop in Houston?
Posted: Wed Sep 29, 2021 2:43 am
by ivaldes1
Figuring out how to get the bracket off to access the leak.