Recommendation for Brass Radiator Shop in Houston?

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ivaldes1
Posts: 913
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2019 1:32 am
First Name: Ignacio
Last Name: Valdes
* REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 1924 Touring
Location: Houston, Tx
MTFCA Number: 50406
Board Member Since: 2016

Recommendation for Brass Radiator Shop in Houston?

Post by ivaldes1 » Sun Sep 26, 2021 2:40 am

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?
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Steve Jelf
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Joined: Fri Jan 04, 2019 9:37 pm
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* REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 1923 touring and a few projects
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Re: Recommendation for Brass Radiator Shop in Houston?

Post by Steve Jelf » Sun Sep 26, 2021 10:33 am

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.
The inevitable often happens.
1915 Runabout
1923 Touring

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Topic author
ivaldes1
Posts: 913
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2019 1:32 am
First Name: Ignacio
Last Name: Valdes
* REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 1924 Touring
Location: Houston, Tx
MTFCA Number: 50406
Board Member Since: 2016

Re: Recommendation for Brass Radiator Shop in Houston?

Post by ivaldes1 » Wed Sep 29, 2021 2:00 am

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.

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Topic author
ivaldes1
Posts: 913
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2019 1:32 am
First Name: Ignacio
Last Name: Valdes
* REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 1924 Touring
Location: Houston, Tx
MTFCA Number: 50406
Board Member Since: 2016

Re: Recommendation for Brass Radiator Shop in Houston?

Post by ivaldes1 » Wed Sep 29, 2021 2:43 am

Figuring out how to get the bracket off to access the leak.
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