Hoses, clamps, heaters

[old-tank]

I recently changed the heater and radiator hoses on one of my 55's.  A 2 hour job that took 8 days (work 15 minutes or less until dripping with sweat, get pissed off and go back to air conditioned house).  I saved the old clamps in case I become misguided and have them zinc plated and install again.  All of the radiator clamps were of the  tower top variety, but the heater hose clamps were mixed:

 

Both ends of the hoses going to the transmission cooler were tower top on both ends... those associated with the heaters and ranco valve were T-band type (on this car...one of my parts cars had tower top only and the other had a different mixture of clamps)

The judging handbook says to use tower top, so to avoid losing points go tower top.  Also note that the original clamps had fillister head slotted screws (tip:  put some tubing over the point of the screw driver to keep from slipping off); reproductions have a slotted and hex head.

During the hose change, i dutifully flushed the heaters and tranny cooler...now i have a heater core leak .   I am out of used units and this one was replaced a year ago with a nice looking and tested used unit.  I hope my radiator shop can fit something to my tanks, otherwise modifications to the heater box will happen (can't see it anyway).

[Beemon]

On my 56, I have two normal hose clamps that are engraved withthe 50s Buick script. I've found no documentation on these. The only tower clamps I have onmy car were for the transmission dipstick. Is it considered original if they came with the car when I got it? Loll

 

I remember seeing a thread on here about adapting a modern heater core. It was smaller but got the job done. Might be cheaper? 

[MrEarl]

16 hours ago, old-tank said:

I hope my radiator shop can fit something to my tanks,

 hope so too, look forward to hearing back on that. Bob Coker had a radiator shop that would replace the core for like $75. I had them do 2 for me but that was probably like 12 years ago. I have some leaky ones with good tanks if you need one.

 

of course one could just send their core to fusicks  ?   https://www.ebay.com/itm/1954-1955-Buick-Special-Roadmaster-Super-Skylark-Remanufactured-Heater-Core/153164865242?hash=item23a9565eda:g:F9AAAOSwh1paM9do

[old-tank]

4 minutes ago, MrEarl said:

just send their core to fusicks

Going to the radiator shop now.  As for Fusciks:  my favorite vendor and I will do what I can to support them and I really understand that they have to eat too --- but just not so high on the hog.

My other scheme is to fit a very small and thin core into the case and run some internal hoses to pipes at the case exits.

[old-tank]

Radiator shop could not find a core to fit mine; now looking into new units to swap tanks ($$$).

One thing I noticed when replacing the heater hoses was the hose that goes from the crossover manifold to the under seat heater:  where is crosses over the frame between the floor, it contacts the fuel line.  If I can remember, I'm going to check the temperature of that hose after a long run.  If the ranco valve is shutting like it should, it will not be hotter than surrounding parts...either way I wrapped insulation and monitor for vapor lock.

[old-tank]

They swapped tanks (heater core 399054).  Price was 1/2 Fuscik, but 2x a regular radiator.  

I was not against 'rigging', but could not find anything acceptable locally and I will not order and chance having to send back (time, money and aggravation).  Something like Spectra 93023 could probably be made to work, and still retain stock location of inlet and outlet.