My 1922 Radiator re-core

[Mark Kikta]

I stopped by the radiator shop today to see the progress on my radiator recore. I was so excited to see it on the bench almost complete.  

[Greacore]

What was the cost to have it rebuilt, is it close to original and did the casing have to be repaired as well?  

[Mark Kikta]

They dismantled the radiator totally and installed a new core. So all joints were cleaned and resoldered. The original had square fins but because they told me that the square fin radiators would cost about 5k to rework, I went with the octagon shaped fins.  Still looks period and total cost was 2300 I believe.  I think they said the only mfr of square finned cores was in Japan and very expensive.

[Hubert_25-25]

Mark,  

   If you want it correct, tell them not to paint the radiator black.  The cores were bare solder so that you could make repairs.  Better heat transfer too.  I used some silver high temp paint on the header tanks.  The inlet and outlet nozzles are steel castings so they would have been painted - and I suspect silver.  Your nickeled filler nozzle looks good.  Your whole radiator looks good.  I am interested in the core as well.  Harrison did all the radiators for Buick for many years and they used a honeycomb core.  I have a nice 1925 Buick Standard radiator (my spare) which has a square core and McCord tag on the side - so I assume it was recored long ago.  Putting a honeycomb style back in may be correct for your year.   

All the Harrison tags I have seen are dated 1 year prior to the car year, which is also interesting.  They must have had quite an inventory.

 

First 2 photos are the McCord Core.   The 3rd photo is a 1926 Harrison honeycomb core with 1925 dated tag.  Remnants of silver paint on the nozzles and tank.  

 

Hugh   

Edited December 7, 2020 by Hubert_25-25 (see edit history)

[Terry Wiegand]

From 1915 to the early 1920's, General Motors was using three suppliers of radiators for all lines of their cars.  They were Harrison, Fedders, and Rome-Turney.  It is then possible to have two Buicks of the same year and model have two different radiator cores and be correct right from the factory.  This bit of information came straight from the late Dave Chamber's lips to my ears.  Dave passed away in the early 1990's and my one friend used to say that when someone like him passed, it was like a library burning down.  Dave was a true gentleman and a walking storehouse of information about Buick Motor Company and the early Buick automobiles.

 

Terry Wiegand

South Hutchinson, Kansas

[Mark Kikta]

I had two 1922 radiators and they were exactly the same with the square finned core and leaks galore. I told the repair shop to leave it natural except for the bracket holding the radiator to the shell and the cast pieces at the inlet and exhaust.  He painted them with a gray rust prohibiting paint.