MTFCA Forum

My youngest son (38) recently got re-interested in T's and decided to steward the '15, from and at his place.

Crazy question but worth asking...

This car has almost no miles on it judging from non-existent wear and tear when things get opened up...we know it doesn't have more than 1000 mies total since 1961, and believe it went into storage sometime in the early 20's...as it was in a Bell Tel warehouse when found in 1961 by family.

Anyway, I just kept the visible brass polished during my stewardship, never worried about the tank part that was under the hood.

The son decided to polish it up full and here is what he found. Anybody have any idea if the insides were this sloppy? I'm open that it was a repair early on...but my son raised the question so figured I'd ask...

Looks pretty typical to me.
I am not enough of an expert on radiators to tell from that photo if it is a real 1915 radiator? Or a 1950s/'60s reproduction. There were several garage/shops making very nice reproductions in those days. In the 1970s, FoMoCo clamped down on the trademark infringement and put most of those guys out of business. But some of those reproduction radiators from the earlier days of the hobby were and are as good or better than what we can buy today! Today, most people cannot tell the difference between a real 1915 and one of those sixty year old reproductions. I know one fellow that really knows them!
I have repaired several brass radiators myself over the years. All of them were a bit sloppy in the soldering in that area.

Does it leak or get hot? If it cools and doesn’t leak use it as it is unless you want to make it a show car.

My 12 rad is like that but you dont see it because that part of the rad is painted black

Looks like an original to me. You need more photos though. Some '15 radiators I've seen have the priming wire hole in a different place.

Thanks all….I forwarded responses to my son.