VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1912-1928 1928 Radiator help!

My mom and pop radiator shop informed me that my ORIGINAL 1928 Coach car Honeycomb radiator core is shot. Re-core (honeycomb) options are crazy expensive ($1000 plus labor). Does anyone have a recommendation?

Todd;
You can put a modern core in and then buy a fake honeycomb front for it. The price of $1,000 is correct. I paid $750 for mine 17 years ago. Your biggest problem is trying to find someone who knows how to work with a honeycomb radiator. If they get too much heat they fall apart. The people who did mine had to get their grandfather out of retirement and come down to the shop to show them how to do it. It's almost a lost art.
Good luck with your project.
Steve

what source could provide a 'fake honeycomb'?
And any input on what type of modern core you would recommend?
Thanks,
Todd

Besides purchasing a new faux honeycomb facia, I’ve heard of a few guys that took their old honeycomb cores and basically used a large metal bandsaw to slice a section to place in front of their new modern cores.

Regarding modern core types, a good radiator shop will be able to give you better advice than me however, my guess is the most important things to consider are:

1). Materials of construction - you’ll likely need/want the core to be copper/brass if you want to use your original tanks

2). You’ll want to keep in mind the core thickness particularly if you will be adding a facia as you’ll need to think through how the radiator will mount/ fit in the radiator shell

Todd;
The Filling Station sells grill inserts for hot-rods. Give them a call and see what they can do for you. Inserts are around $500.

Steve

It really depends on what you want for the car.

The core on my '26 was plugged and leaky when I got it. It was hugely important for me to keep the car as original as possible, plus I took into consideration that I would not tour the car... So I had a local radiator guy put a new honeycomb core in. It was expensive, but I'm thrilled with it.

On the other hand, my grandfather regularly tours his '27 coupe and recently had a ribbon core installed after running a honeycomb-style for 40 years. While the aesthetics won't be quite right as-is, he has a thin sliced section of core that he will mount in front of the ribbon core.

In my opinion that honeyconb radiator is the heart of the car.You might want to bite the bullet and buy that new radiator.

Switching to a V-cell type of core my total with labor would be $1020, going with a new honeycomb core and using the original tank, total with labor $2000. My radiator guy says repairing the original honeycomb leak is not a good option , because as he heats to seal original leak, their would most likely be new leaks formed at the border of the repair. Has anyone had any success using a coolant additive to help seal a leak in my original Honeycomb?

Hi Todd,

I had a hairline crack in the head of my '28 canopy express and I put some regular Bar's Leaks (little flakes of aluminum floating in a solution) in the coolant which eventually stopped the leak. In retrospect, I probably should've used the Bar's Leaks Block Seal Liquid Copper product.

Another idea, if you have the leak pinpointed, is to smear some J-B Weld on the outside of the leak to seal it. J-B Weld can stand up to the coolant. They also have a J-B Weld Ultimate Copper Silicone Gasket Maker, which you could look into.

Please keep us informed of what you do and how it works out.

Cheers, Dean

Just had my 25 radiator core replaced with honeycomb. Total cost, $1,050. A1 Radiator in Reno, NV. If your radiator guy is looking at $2K he either doesn't want to do it or he sees you have money to burn. Suggest you talk to other shops. Eric in Reno, NV

Depending on how bad ,as was mentioned before JB weld applied with a Q tip will do the trick. I have a Shay model A , when they did the radiator they used a piece of wire screen that makes the Pinto radiator look similar to a honeycomb.

Seems like he doesn't want the work. I paid $1081.77 for a complete honeycomb core replacement and he painted it.

I had my 29 radiator re-cored with the honeycomb back in December 2016 and painted. It looks great $898.
B.J.R. Auto Radiator Service Corp. Rochester, NY