is there anyway to shorten a stock 34 radiator for a 3" channeled car? i have called a local rad shop but that dont do much of anything. any suggestions without hearing brassworks. i got a quote from them and they are my back up option. i would prefer to use this nice original clean radiator i stumbled on.
Yes, an old school radiator shop can do that job. The problem is actually finding a local one that's interested in doing the work. Local here is a big truck repair garage that will do radiator work like that, but you'll not find them listed under radiator repair or anything to do with cars. It can be difficult, but hunt around in the bushes and you should be able to find something.
'31Vicky has it. Put it in the back of your truck and drive around town, you'll find someone you can show it to and talk to who'll help you out.
Do you need to channel it? It only sits on riveted in triangular plates in front of the crossmember. Have you tried deleting them and sliding it down? Might need to get creative with the lower hoses. After all, will you also be channelling the grill?
Back in the day I bought one from Walker... It's been in the car for twenty years with no problems... Funny thing - I wanted a flathead but had a 57 Vette motor so they built it with four outlets - two blocked off so most folks assume it is a recore
Basically it would be a re-core probably need a custom core made 3" shorter .... Then standard re-core procedures ....not gonna be cheap but probably lot less than brass works
The car is already channeled , I'm not shortening the grill. Just moving it down. It looks good like that. My rad mounts are bolted in because I replaced them. I looked at moving it down but with a flathead, it's impossible. They did it back in the day so I wanna try and find someone that can do it now. The aluminum rads they make are only for chipping the grill 3 inches .. Which i will not do. It's on this car: Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Those (chopping) the grill 3 radiators work the same as what you want to do. All You need is the top tank lower or closer to the mounting feet. There's no way that I know of to keep the stock wheel base and stock Sheetmetal pieces and then lower the mounting feet on the frame for a channel. You'll have get a short radiator to make it work. But remember the chopped grill shell radiator is most likely the same short radiator you need That's a neat car !!!
Brass works told me a chopped radiator is not the same as what I want to do. The consider "chopped" as 3 inches taken horizontally out of the Center of the grill shell. Which makes the lower brackets for the grill and inner fenders not correct Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Well that kind of sucks if that's the case. I've never seen a chopped 33/34 grill anyway, have you? Maybe a truck ? I'm going to go look at my radiators... Ok just looked at an original 34 truck ( same as car) and the sides have key holes for bolt on brackets. And I looked at an older brass "walker" and it has the same holes plus a few more. On both of those radiators- if 3" were taken out of the exact center, the lower holes would need to be relocated to work on a channeled car. Depending on how the inner fenders were modified to fit. The top 1/2 should be fine, just 3" closer to the bottom like you want. Would involve layout drill and key holed with a dremel tool. I suppose if that aluminum radiator is cheaper than a rework I'd spend an hour moving the holes.
Yea I don't want an aluminum rad even though I have one here for it . But it needs a lot of fab work to make it work and my guy that normally welds aluminum bailed out on me . Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
I use midtown auto repair in Waterville, mn ... I'm sure you might be able to find a local shop, but for me I grew up with the guy and can vouch for his work he has done 3 radiators for me including a 6" chopped model a I just had a 32 rad re-cored it was 650.00 but the custom core was a 85% of the cost
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