Why Should You Send Your Radiator to the Nation’s Most Experienced Classic Radiator Repair Shop
Why Should You Send Your Radiator to the Nation’s Most Experienced Classic Radiator Repair Shop
Around twenty years ago, Cap-A Radiator of Farmingdale, NY began a new division named Classic Radiator and immediately grabbed the URL of www.ClassicRadiator.com. We began this new venture for two reasons:
1. Being a classic car enthusiast, Bill Carberry, owner of the shop realized that there were extremely few radiator repair shops remaining and able to or willing to do the work and
2. Because, having worked on these vintage car radiators, we realized that we enjoyed the challenge that they presented.
While we admit, when we began this endeavor, we weren’t the most experienced radiator shop at repairing antique radiators, that’s no longer the case. In today’s world, Bill Carberry probably has more experience with these antique radiators than anyone else still in the industry. There may still be a few old timers out there who’ve been doing it longer and managed not to go out of business, but since migrating from a “traditional” radiator repair shop to one that specializes in antique cooling systems, we will gladly compare our classic work to anyone else’s.
If you really want your vintage radiator repaired or recored at a fair price and not have to worry about it again for decades to come, Classic Radiator is the place to go, This 1929 Model A Radiator is a perfect case-in-point. The owner of this nearly 90 years old radiator brought it to us because the car had been running hot. As you can see in the “before” picture, that was caused by the fins coming apart, a phenomenon known in the industry as “fin bond failure.” When the fins are not properly bonded to the tubes, they will fall out. Initially, this will cause a lack of cooling ability. Eventually it will cause the radiator to leak, as the tubes, unencumbered by the fins holding them tightly in place, will expand and contract with the heat cycle and eventually snap. The primary reason for fin bond failure: Lousy workmanship at the core manufacturing facility.
While the radiator shop that last worked on the radiator seemed to do their job well, they still managed to fail their customer because they bought a cheapo core to put into his vintage automobile. Although many of them went out of business years ago, there are still quite a few core manufacturers and they don’t all know what they are doing. True, there is a chance that the core came from a good factory that had one employee who did his/her job terribly and replaced that person when they found out, but it’s much more likely that the core came out of a factory that had systemic problems with quality of workmanship. We only deal with the absolute highest quality manufacturers in the world! That often means it costs more, but it also means that our products will help us keep the good name that we’ve earned over nearly 40 years in the cooling system industry!
Unfortunately for our customer, the only proper solution to this Model A radiator was to recore the radiator. It was an expense that shouldn’t have been necessary after such a short time, and that is why it’s imperative for you to always have your work done by professionals at a business that understands the cars that they’re dealing with. This time the radiator was recored by Classic Radiator and it was done properly, using proper parts! It will be a long time before it needs to be worked on again!