And thanks to the generosity of a family member who also appreciates vintage.
This story starts out like any other owners with heartache and tears. One day I took a trip to the grocery store and come out after shopping and seen a puddle of anti-freeze under my Lil’ 1966 Chevy. So I put my groceries in the cab and went to open my hood to see what happened and I saw the leak was coming from the radiator. So I looked to see how bad it was and how much coolant I had lost. I had a bottle in the back, I try to always carry some just in case. So I poured a little in the radiator, luckily for me I wasn’t too far from home so the truck wouldn’t get too hot to cause any other damage to any other part of the cooling system. Actually, I was surprised it wasn’t the bottom hose because it was the original hose that had been on the truck since I had bought it in1994.
Then I nursed the truck home and parked him in his stall, let him cool off so I could get a better eye at the full extent of the damage. Once he was cool I seen a hole on the inside of the radiator about 1 1/2 inches in length in the fins. Not bad for his age and being his original radiator. I started trying to find a replacement radiator for this truck but the search took me down a dead end road because all of the aluminum and copper radiators that are made for this truck were all for automatic transmissions. Also, I could not find one MADE on American soil. So next I thought if I could try to find a company local that could possibly rebuild my radiator with the original materials that are also made in America. So that search was also lengthy.
I brought up this subject and frustration with a buddy of mine that also works as a mechanic that knew a local radiator shop that could rebuild it to my expectations and to his originality. Then my next step was to get the radiator up there for a price quote. As I got ready to do this, my heater core also needed to be replaced. Now, I’ve tried to fix that in the past in 1995. It was a success at the time but now it started leaking again but this time it wasn’t going to be as easy.
I went to Inter-mountain Radiator and they looked it over and gave me a quote of $325 and that would be with the original materials that it was originally made out of. So I asked him how long would it take once I had him start on it and he said about 2 weeks. We had to figure out where we were going to get the money. I had a little money put away for my truck budget but it was not nearly enough. Then a miracle happened. While visiting with family soon after, my sister-in-law Debbie donated $60 after hearing about our desperate wanting to keep the truck as original as possible and trying to come up with money to get it fixed. She said she appreciated that I wanted to restore my truck to its original glory and how hard I worked on finding American original parts. She helped put us over the top to meet our goal and to get the work started! Thanks Debbie Fay!!!
Now I can start my search to replace the heater core. As I’ve already said before, I’ve tried to stick with American made parts so when I can’t find them I resort to salvage yards. One yard that isn’t too far from my house that I am a regular at, I struck gold and got lucky. I found a perfect replacement heater core from another truck the same year as my truck and is actually the same brand that came with the truck when it was new. (An actual Harrison) It looks as if it was hardly ever used. Besides being a little dirty it was in excellent shape. So I pulled it myself and was able to get it for $20 BUCKS!!! So I took it to the shop where they were rebuilding my radiator to have him give it a once over, do a pressure test and check for leaks and clean it and add it to the bill. Which, incidentally he charged us nothing for when I came back to get them both, he even threw in a new drain cock. And a new relief hose also for nothing, now all I had to do was buy me a new radiator cap, I had the 2 hoses, new antifreeze and 4 c-clamps for the hoses and someday I WILL replace the heater hoses, but for now, they will hold up and my radiator and heater core are done for now. I am currently in the process of restoring the heater box and I will be showing that in an upcoming post very soon.
