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So the car is idling on the trailer
and I watch as the temp needle come up off the peg, slowly crawling
upward toward an optimum 185 or so. I soon notice a wisp of steam
rising from under the nose cowl. The longer I watched the more
steam came out until it was positively pouring steam out the
top and green liquid out the bottom. Of course this radiator's
been repaired twice now, the latest effort being last spring,
but obviously something's not right with it. Removal of the cowl
reveals telltale greenish streaks running from the attachment
point of the inlet tube in the top of the radiator - precisely
at the point of the two previous repairs.
 The tube actually goes into a sort of
'U' channel piece which wraps from front over the top down the
back and is soldered to the top tank. I scratched my head a bit
then figured well, it's on the trailer, I can take it to the
radiator shop first thing in the morning and pick it up at the
end of the day. of course, 'Bill' had different ideas. After
explaining my situation - his failed repairs, my needing to take
the car to Ann Arbor the following morning, dyno time scheduled,
etc, etc, he tells me he can 'get it in' on Tuesday! Says he
has to take the radiator out to do it properly. The last two
times I had removed it and brought in just the radiator, and
the more I thought about it, the less I wanted Bill and his crew
to be messing with the rest of my car, so I asked him 'if I remove
the radiator can you do it today?' - Oh yeah, no problem. So
I run back home to my tools, call work on the way to tell them
I'll be a half hour late, pull the radiator in about ten minutes
and return to the shop. 'Back already?'
 photos of radiator AFTER repair, before
finishing!
About 10am I get a call at my
office - 'It's all done. I took off the whole piece where it
was leaking and it was all corroded underneath. Sand blasted
the parts clean and completely resoldered.' So I picked it up
on my way home from the office, and thankfully they didn't even
consider charging for the work... hopefully it will hold this
time!
Of course here I am on Valentine's
day evening, scheduled to leave at 6:30 the following morning
and the radiator is in the trunk of the big car... nice dinner,
the kids are doing their own thing and my wife says 'well, aren't
you going to put the car back together? I try to explain that
I can do it at 5:30 in the morning, before we leave - it'll only
take me an hour or so. She insists that if it's only going to
take an hour, that I ought to get at and be done before it gets
too much later! So out I go to the garage, reinstall radiator
and steering rack, fill, start, warm - someone's on MY side this
time - no leaks! I'm back inside in less than an hour.
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