For those of you who have not followed the few threads I've posted on here, my recently acquired 1948 Chevy Thriftmaster 3100 pickup is not stock. Somewhere along the way the original owner replaced the factory 216 with a 1954 235 passenger car engine (sadly, not the Blue Flame version); but it was rebuilt.
What I'm assuming is still the factory 1948 brass radiator is leaking. I put a few cooling system seal tabs in and it seems to have stopped up the leaks for now, but who knows for how long. I'm getting sticker shock from the prices I've heard it costs to have a factory radiator re-cored. The upper tank on my radiator has some dents in it, so it isn't that great looking as it is, and I'm not sure it is worth it to re-core this radiator since the truck isn't factory stock anyway.
I've seen replacement 2 and 3 core Aluminum radiators for sale on ebay around $117 - $130 or so (obviously all made in China). I also see that Classic Parts sells an all-new, USA-made radiator for about $625 (not aluminum).
What would you do since it's not stock? Would you save some $$$ and just throw a cheap ebay aluminum radiator in and run that? Or would you spend the money on having the factory radiator re-cored or buy a new American-made one from a place like Classic?
