BuickBob49 Posted October 30, 2016 Share Posted October 30, 2016 The water pump bearing on my 1939 Roadmaster failed today. The fan pierced the radiator. I need to repair the radiator. The 1939 shop manual suggests that I can remove the radiator without taking apart the grille and front sheetmetal. Is this so? Otherwise, the job is much more complicated. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry Stock Posted October 30, 2016 Share Posted October 30, 2016 My recollection with the smaller 39 Special: take off the water pump & the hood. Detach the radiator and pull it up and out. I definitely did not take off the sheet metal & grill etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 1, 2016 Share Posted November 1, 2016 Agreed, you don't need to disassemble front sheet metal, but I do suggest you keep fan bolted to water pump during removal or replacement. Getting those pesky bolts lined up through fan and pulley and then threaded into water pump bolt flange with everything else installed caused me to loose a lot of religion and change my opinion about my intelligence. Just sayin'! If worried about damage to radiator fins during install cover radiator or surrounding metal with cardboard and have help lifting it into place. Disconnect water pump with fan attached then damaged radiator. Reinstall radiator, then water pump with again fan attached. If it doesn't seem logical, go ahead and try it the other way, hee, hee! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dynaflash8 Posted November 1, 2016 Share Posted November 1, 2016 I have this problem to solve, as I've notice a tiny seep in the radiator on my convertible sedan. In days long ago, I do believe some mechanics were able to remove the radiator as the shop manual and people above has suggested. It frankly looks impossible to me, but I know it's been done. It is so easy to pull the entire front clip, that seems to be the only sensible thing to do. On my car I have the mid-year factory introduced baffle and shroud installed. The baffle is attached to the nose, not the radiator. All you have to do to remove the front end is to remove 4-5 bolts (can't remember) under each fender attaching the rear of the fenders to the cowl; one bolt attaching the fender brace. Then, inside the hood you remove one bolt holding the side pan to the cowl, and then there is one huge bolt on the bottom of the radiator. The you get two pals to come over. One guy gets under the nose, the other two under the curve of the fender. The back of the fender goes under the cowl, so you have to pull the fenders outward before lifting up so as to not scratch the cowl. The whole operation is easier if you remove the tires, because you don't have to lift so high. You just have to lift up on the nose to clear the bolt hanging down from the bottom of the radiator support, pull the fenders out and walk forward from the car. Sit the assembly on the ground and you can remove all of those bolts hold the radiator to the radiator support. It's only easy if you're younger than me, and you have two strong younger friends. Since 1963 I've done this opeation many times, but now I have the problem of being 78 and not having those two strong friends. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuickBob49 Posted November 2, 2016 Author Share Posted November 2, 2016 Thanks for all the advice! This was David Corbin's car. I did some additional rearch on this topic in the Forum. In one thread on cooling, a writer noted that Dave installed a custom shroud around the fan on the radiator to improve air flow. It is still in place. I hope that we can still have success in sliding out the radiator without removing the front sheetmetal. Otherwise, we'll need to follow Plan B. I had the car towed to my mechanic's garage. I can't look at it until the weekend to determine our strategy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dynaflash8 Posted November 3, 2016 Share Posted November 3, 2016 Look at my post above. If I were doing the job myself at home and had two young strong friends, I would remove the front end. But, I'm 78 and all my friends are old too. So I took it to our local restoration shop, O'Hara Restorations in Frostproof, FL and gave them the choice. They looked at the shop manual, considered the paint, and decided to pull the radiator the hard way, like the book says to do it. To my amazement they got the radiator out with the front end in place still on the car. Now I challenge them to put it back in. So, yes, it can be done with enough hands on the job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
critterpainter Posted November 3, 2016 Share Posted November 3, 2016 I have NOT removed the rad on a large series 39, However I did pull the rad on a 39 Special a few months ago. Looks harder than it is. It was not difficult at all. First, after removing the hood, remove the thermostat assy and the upper hose. Then pull the fan blades off using an end wrench. This was the hardest part. Pull the water pump and then unbolt the rad, tip the top to the engine and LIFT. 30-45 min job at the most. Bill 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuickBob49 Posted November 4, 2016 Author Share Posted November 4, 2016 Yesterday, my mechanic's assistant followed the manual's instructions and pulled the radiator out from the top. It is now at the radiator shop for repair. I'm still puzzled about having a catastrophic failure like this. On my 49 Super, I've had the pump leak through the weep hole, so I replaced it. This time on the 39 it was different. We did replace the belt recently on the 39. That might have accounted for some strain on the pump bearing that ultimately led to a failure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuickBob49 Posted November 4, 2016 Author Share Posted November 4, 2016 We did a post mortem on the failed water pump. Whoever rebuilt last time didn't do a very good job--parts missing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dynaflash8 Posted November 5, 2016 Share Posted November 5, 2016 It took them two hours to take out my 39 Special radiator. But, I have both the baffle and the shroud to remove as well as the fan, water pump and radiator. I wasn't there, but it looks like to me you would need arms like a Gorilla to get to all of the radiator bolts. But to be honest, I like most of you, didn't think it could be done. They put a new core into it.....and yes, it was expensive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Schramm Posted November 5, 2016 Share Posted November 5, 2016 (edited) 1 hour ago, Dynaflash8 said: They put a new core into it.....and yes, it was expensive. I feel your pain with the new radiator / recore in my truck this year. Good news is that it no longer leaks. Edited November 5, 2016 by Larry Schramm (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dynaflash8 Posted November 6, 2016 Share Posted November 6, 2016 If you see my post under AACA General this morning, I talk about the expense I find in the hobby today. The car in my picture cost me $120 in 1963 (I had to borrow the money from the credit union). It had 77,000 miles on it and was in pretty good shape, although the engine had low oil pressure. That caused a rod to finally fail and in 1965 I had the engine bored, crank turned, and totally rebuilt with new pistons, machined rods and 1950 insert bearings. All for $625! Today that same car in the same condition would cost about $15,000 and the engine job would coat $10,000. Now if anybody things somebody 25 years old with two kids and a house payment could do that today, think twice. This radiator core alone cost $635 and the labor is $65 an hour and that labor rate is good for this day and time. I suspect the total job will be over $1,000. Back in 1963 I was making maybe $5,000 a year. Today that might be $24-28,000 a year. Do the math. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cxgvd Posted November 6, 2016 Share Posted November 6, 2016 Funny, just bought and took delivery of a Century with the fan blades sitting neatly in the trunk. Doesn't seem as there is enough room between the engine and rad for the fan let alone fitting the bolts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dynaflash8 Posted November 6, 2016 Share Posted November 6, 2016 There is enough room, barely, for bolts, fingers and skinned knuckles. By the way, who put that antenna on that car? The antenna is supposed to be connected to the running boards. I see sealed beam headlight conversions too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cxgvd Posted November 6, 2016 Share Posted November 6, 2016 You are correct Dynaflash, A few things are incorrect and the runningboards on the left are missing some rubber. I am wondering if Streamliners could be retrofitted. Anyway have until spring to get things shipshape for touring. Sorry to highjack the thread. Gary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dynaflash8 Posted November 6, 2016 Share Posted November 6, 2016 (edited) cxgvd: If you install streamboards you'll have to install the rear fender rubber stonepads to be authentic. They came as a set or in pairs or however you want to phrase it. That said, both are extremely hard to find, as are the stainless steel moldings for the stream boards. I see you have tun stainless strip for the running board on the left side. These are being reproduced if you need one. Likewise, there are a couple of places to get new, correct runningboard rubber. These were being done by a guy name Acuff in Georgia. I think it was Hundley Acuff. He was in north Georgia.....a name like Roswell or something like that. Also Doug Seybold in Cleveland has been advertising that he is doing them or has a source. I don't know if he is subletting Acuff, bought him out or what. Edited November 6, 2016 by Dynaflash8 (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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