Technical Great service from Brice Thomas Radiator

Brice Thomas built this Ford radiator with GM hose ends for my 63.
The work looks great, the service was on time and I’m tickled.
I know some of you guys are not aluminum fans. They also do copper/brass.
They have acquired US radiator.
We see lots of threads for vendors that don’t deliver. This is not the case here. I couldn’t be happier.

 

Thanks for the feedback. Always nice to know who the good guys are !

 

A little black paint and you would never know it's aluminum.

 

Was just discussing that. The wife looked at me like I was crazy.

 

My wife looks at me like I'm crazy all the time. After 41 years, I'm used to it!

 

Well she knows you best!

 

Brice Thomas makes the best Aluminum radiators, they use industrial cores in their radiators.

 

They said this will cool 500 cubic inches.
I believe em.

 

I've had one of their radiators on my Ebay watch list for a while. I don't know what chassis I am putting the flathead in right now though. C, G, & J Inc * Radiators - Charge Air Coolers - Oil Coolers

 

Their stuff isn’t the Chinese eBay radiators
I’m well pleased white how this thing turned out.
I haven’t used their radiators before but I have their intercoolers. .
Several years ago I called them about a custom radiator for a blower application. This particular car had very limited space. They were honest enough to say their aluminum product wouldn’t cool it and recommend calling Walker.
That’s says a lot to recommend a competitor.
They now build brass/coper ones now. Their tech guy said coper could cool in the limited space I had.

 

They do everything in house and any hot rod radiator is a custom order, not something pulled out of a shipping container.

 

They invited us to bring students to the facility.
May try to do that.
They built mine in 5 working days just like they promised.
they did mention a 100% custom built off a pattern would take more time.

 

HEY! That's my line!

Ben

 

Those guys are the best! They will build anything and if they think you have a bad idea they will say so and turn down the job. They also host a NSRA Appreciation Day with lots of goodies, burgers and baloney. Just a bunch of good guys that like cars.

 

This is great news. Thanks for sharing.

 

That is exactly what i did to Brice Thomas radiator for my PU.

 

That looks great.

 

Got another quality piece from Brice Thomas/US radiator

60-63 gm truck

 

I am one of the guys that don't particularly care for aluminum radiators, mostly because I haven't had any good experience s with them but I have had a couple of copper/brass US Radiators in the past and was well pleased with both, I sold the 29 hiboy shortly after I built it but the radiator worked flawlessly.

The other copper/brass US RADIATOR was in a 1940 Ford sedan and I owned that car for more than 15 years with no problems with the radiator what so ever.

Brice Thomas will be someone I will be doing business when it comes time for my next radiator, I am happy to here he will still offer what the customer wants. HRP

 

I bought a copper/brass 4 row Desert Cooler from Brice Thomas/US Radiator for my 56 Chevy and couldn't be happier! Car won't get over 190 degrees even in high 90 degree temp's. Great product, built to last, and look's like the original Harrison radiator it replaced! Will definately recommend, and will definately be a return customer if the need arises!

 

As far as material, I’ve never had an issue with either. I’ve installed hundreds of aluminum radiators, intercoolers and condensers. All doing collision work. I’ve had a couple plastic tanks split.
The aluminum radiators I’ve gotten from Brice Thomas/US radiators are heavier than the off shore ones I’ve seen.
The one in my bus is very close in weight as the copper one that it replaced.
Material isn’t the issue, build quality is.
We just took the truck for a cruise. It like my bus ran cooler than the copper one.
The bus was replaced due to an engine swap. The truck was leaking badly and had a poor older repair. Both cores were clean.

 

Those are some good looking radiators. It’s good to see a thread about a Great company who believes in old fashioned customer service. Thanks.

 

Anthony, I approached Buddy Griffin at his manufacturing facility in Townville, South Carolina and ask him about building a aluminum radiator for the 1939 ford convertible I was building, This was when he was starting to get involved with NASCAR & the Busch series cars.

He ask me to bring my original radiator to him and he would have his shop foreman build one, I had the very first aluminum radiator Griffin ever built for a hot rod,

It wasn't cheap and it didn't cool very good, it would run hot if I had to sit through 2 stop lights, one day I had had enough so I drove back to Townville and and took Buddy for a ride, as I expected it started running hot, I tried everything that was suggested including running 2 electric fans ( another thing I don't care for but that's for another day).

That didn't help after a few more weeks I went back but Buddy wasn't there, but his foreman was and he told me to take the radiator out and bring it back and they would make me a new one, I did as he ask and he invited me into the work area, he said we are going to find out why this radiator won't cool. He carried it over to a huge band saw and proceeded to cut both the top & bottom tanks from the cooling fins.

What he found was more than half of the cooling tubes we clogged with the epoxy the radiator is assembled with,

About a week later I got the new aluminum radiator back in the car and the car ran much cooler, That year I was finally starting to feel confident with the cool problems of the past and drove the car to the Nationals in Columbus, Ohio, guess what it took longer than in the past but the car started running hot, even with the electric fans.

Fortunately, I was approached by a young guy that wanted to trade, I looked at his car ,asked questions and told him about the radiator problems I was having and he still wanted to trade, I drove his 40 sedan home and he drove the 39 convertible home.

The last time I talked to him he still had the car,but he replaced the radiator with a Walker jast a few weeks after we traded.

Hopefully this explains my dislike for aluminum radiators & electric fan's, but that's me. HRP

 

Sure does. That’s why I prefer these welded ones.
I’m thinking about changing thermostats
on my bus because it runs too cool. 180-185. Even 100 degree days in traffic.
The 350 with a copper radiator in great shape ran 210-215 in traffic. Got close to 220 a few times.

 

Had a US radiator in my Dodge pickup and cooled fine but they could never build one that would cool my blown Hemi in my 34 Ford... Finally found a place in Rexburg ID called Total Cool Products Performance to build me an aluminum one that had two rows that were inch and a half wide.....Works fine here in Vegas....

 

Several years ago, I needed a radiator for a SBC blown Porsche.
Called Brice Thomas and gave them the dimensions for the limited room I had.
They told me they couldn’t with their aluminum cores. I appreciated their honesty. (They didn’t own US Radiator at that time)
They said call Walker.
Walker had a wide copper core their radiator scientists said would work. Thickest radiator I ever installed. Think it had a 4 inch core.
It worked.
These last 2 US Radiators I’ve used have 2 wide rows. Not sure on the size, I’ll check.

 

I tried a Griffin aluminum radiator in my big block El Camino once. It used to run at 205 winter, spring, summer or fall with the leaking original. Figured it would be lighter. It was but I couldn’t drive more than a few blocks before it started spewing. Had Twardys Radiator (A nice place to take a leak.) shop in Dyer Indiana get me a new 4 core Walker. Back to 205* and I have not had another aluminum radiator in a toy since. But those radiators Anthony showed might have me rethinking things. And he and others seem happy. Hmmmm. How salty is the price?

 

Brice Thomas built me a custom aluminum radiator last fall. It's a thing of beauty, but the car is still coming together so I haven't run it. It's small, (think T-bucket) was about $590. I just ordered another one, 21X27 core, and its $860. They said it's all about material cost increases. I pulled the trigger anyway, they are good guys.

 

I did a little internet shopping. Classic Industries has them on sale a good bit cheaper than the US Radiator website. $400 -$424 range. But it never hurts to call them (US radiator) anyway.
Or visit them. Especially if you talk with them at a show or at the shows at their place.

 

As far as cooling with aluminum, most of the overseas versions seem to be similar in core construction as a copper radiator. Small, narrow flues. The aluminum ones I’ve gotten from US Radiator are larger.
The info I have read is that aluminum does better with larger flues. 2 large flues can be the equivalent of 3-4 (depend on size) in copper.