I've owned this '31 Chevrolet since 2009. After so long I was getting very discouraged because the car continued to overheat. The confusing part was that it wouldn't always be under the same conditions or have the same symptoms. I had the head fixed, new head gasket and the new bearing style water pump. I had taken the car on shorter trips before and it performed decently, then other times it wouldn't make a similar trip or even into town, then it would perform halfway decent. I had rebuilt more than one water pump multiple times. Finally, after about 3 years of saving up money I purchased a new radiator from Brassworks. It's made of newly constructed top and bottom tanks like the originals with a newer modern core. After 3 iterations we were finally able to get one that fit, but the great thing is that Lee at Brassworks was true to his word and stuck with the job until it was finished correctly. It was a bit frustrating for both of us, but he made sure it was done correct and with great quality. One big issue was the metal guide for the crank handle that sticks up from the cross frame. This caused fitment issues that were difficult to resolve.
I'm glad to say that I took the car on a 2nd test drive today (still with no hood) and it performed perfectly. It was about 80 degrees and I took it through every test I could find. Long, steep grades and long steady grades and idling. It never attempted to overheat in the slightest. I'm very excited about being able to drive my car now. There are still a lot of things I want to fix, but the first and most important thing was getting the overheating stopped.
It turns out the headgasket I had was bad as well as the old radiator. Because the radiator in the car was from a 1930, it had the threaded radiator cap fitting. This meant I had to get a new radiator cap, which meant I had to get rid of my old motometer, which meant I had to fix and replace the non-working original temperature gauge.
Now, not only can I actually take the car on some nice drives without the constant anxiety of overheating and cracking the head, I can move on to some of the other projects like the window and windshield regulators, steering play, rebuilding the horn, installing the heater, etc.
Big thanks to Lee at Brassworks for sticking with the project and seeing it through. For anyone with a '31 that needs a radiator, they now have the fitment needed to make your '31 radiator fit.
