Bergs Radiators

[Oldav8tor]

When Mike Berg quit the radiator business he put his equipment and enough parts to make a number of radiators up for sale. Do you know if anyone bought the business and is planning to make his Model T Radiators again?

[Steve Jelf]

Mike Berg is my cousin. The radiator guy is Gery Bergbower. I don't know if he sold the business to anybody. I believe he folded it because he couldn't get some of the materials due to the post-Covid supply clusterflock. I expect that would be just as bad a problem for anybody else wanting to go into the business. Some may doubt the shortage problem, but it's quite real. The wheat crackers I buy when traveling have been gone from all the stores since August. Currently some sizes of tarp are not to be had, and the dog food and cat food I normally buy are gone from the shelves.

[TXGOAT2]

I can still get the dog food, usually, but at twice the price. No more "conventional" motor oil at Wahmart, and their synthetic products are priced very close to name brand synthetics. I like tarragon. Too bad. It's gone.

[Harry Lillo]

We have a high end radiator shop in our area that builds custom radiators
for street rodder's as well as a few Model T rads. Thicker brass and silver soldered joints.
I let him know Gerry was going out of business so he contacted him.
He did not purchase the name or business as much of Berg's production was
subcontracted out to other parties. It simply would not work for him
here in Alberta with those suppliers being so far away.
Harry

[Oldav8tor]

Sorry I got Mike and Gery mixed up (insert dope slap here.) Nothing against Brassworks, but it would be nice to have another supplier of Model T Radiators just like it would be great to have someone who could re-core existing radiators (including brass ones.) My understanding is that Gery was 63 and looking to retire....there certainly could be more to the story.

[Steve Jelf]

...it would be great to have someone who could re-core existing radiators (including brass ones.)

Since we lost Tom Nolte, who did Rob's early radiators and recored my 1915, I inquired at the shop in Wichita where the local T guys have their radiator work done. I was told yes, they do recores. I haven't had them do one, but they have been in business a long time. I expect there are radiator shops in a lot of large towns where they have somebody old enough to know what he's doing. I found one (actually George Clipner found it for me) in Springfield IL with a guy old enough to know what to do.

[Allan]

We have a really good radiator repairer, but we need a core supplier. Who do we contact?

Allan from down under.

[DHort]

Steve

I think all the guys in the larger towns and cities have moved out. Your best radiator guys will be in smaller towns.

You just have to find them and I think it is usually word of mouth.

[Adam]

Re coring an original T radiator usually produces either a poor quality product and/or poor longevity at an attractive price. Generally the tanks and other parts that require re-use aren’t much better than the core they are replacing. Brass stress cracks from vibration and age and tanks often re-crack or develop cracks in new areas in a relatively short time. I haven’t seen a re-core job in over 20 years that looked right, fit right, and was trouble free on a T that was driven a lot.

It is doubtful that anyone else will get into the business of making new T radiators. If your shop labor time was below similar industries, the finished radiator would be more expensive than what is already available. Plus it is a dirty, wet, smoky, industrial assembly job that holds little attraction for owner or employee unless it had a big payoff.

[John kuehn]

The radiator shop I used in Waco is an older shop but they are a shop that does big rig and heavy equipment radiators, tractors and autos. So maybe we are lucky to still have them. I called the other shops in town and they are mostly modern cars and trucks and that’s about it. If you ask them about old cars such as T’s or A’s they begin to look as if it’s something from another planet. The younger generation is getting distant from old or older equipment. And if you ask them about a distributor they have to have a computer or some sort of digital device to set the points. The shops are still around that do it are there but you really have to look to find them.

[John kuehn]

Allan
To maybe answer you question, the shop here in Texas buys the flat tube core material cut to size. If your a purist you may want round tube only but flat tube radiator material is sold for the big rigs and the local shop would buy it cut to fit. Maybe there is a core supplier that’s sells it that way instead of a core cut for a paticular truck or car in your area. My car was recored about 2 years ago so maybe the companies that do it are still around that sells radiator cores that way.

[Allan]

Thank you John. My local shop, now closed, used to do heavy equipment radiators with flat tube cores cut to size. These were delivered with header plates fitted. He could find nobody who would make the wider top header plate suitable for a Model T. He did manage to once get a blank brass sheet punched for the core, and then fold it up to suit. All this added to the cost and he was not happy to repeat the process. Meanwhile, we run with Brassworks products, but long for the quality available when Greg Gouvea was running the shop.

Allan from down under.

[Dan Hatch]

At one time Daniel Radiator which became Go Dan ( I think) made cores for Model T radiators. Both flat and round. Not sure if they do now. I looked into recoring radiators but found out the cores came with just a flat header on top and bottom. Too much trouble for what could be gotten for them at the time.
Just some info for you guys. Dan

[George Mills]

With new radiators, even black ones going for over a thousand bucks...and...with the chances of finding a good used radiator almost a Don Quixote exercise in futility...

There is a non-purist answer on a re-core...I forget the exact specifics, but years ago I wanted a bitsey for fun and games and the radiator leaked like a sieve no amount of goo would seal it up. The local radiator shop found a stock (then) modern core for a Clark fork lift core that was the correct height, had top and bottom plate a wee bit bigger than the T and the width was a little wide.

They sheared the plates to T size...balanced a cut on the width to be close enough without having to solder shut flat tube holes...made up a mounting support to take the spreading load of the frame...and bada bing, all done!

Sure, takes a guy who knows his source books and trade, but it was a lot less expensive than new at the time...and that car, some decades later, STILL has that same 'modern' core where the builder told me it worked out to about 4x the cooling capacity and in fact has never ever burped or overheated.

[YellowTRacer]

I'm not going to mention the name of my radiator repair shop. He does great work and decent pricing, but just using a little common sense here. Most shops that will work on our radiators or recore or create a new one, do it to some degree to help us out, or to know that they're bringing a historic item back to life, maybe a little break from the daily routine, but if they were barraged with a bunch to do.......ouch! "I've got rent to pay, and I can't charge these guys my normal fee for the amount of time I have to invested" So the real business man is smart and just say's no! "We don't work on those." If you've got a guy that does good work, be sure to really thank the guy that's willing to help you out, even though his price may hurt a little.

Ed aka #4