Characters on radiator

[oxf2]

I sent off a radiator to a specialist for a recore. When it came back, I noticed characters that had previously appeared on the radiator are no longer visible. Is this modification normally considered acceptable? I am surprised if it is. I wouldn't do that to an old radiator if I were working on it myself.

[Motorsport Mickey]

Normally if I sent it off and wished to retrain character details such as that I'd ensure to instruct the firm (in writing) for those to be retained. Have you contacted the firm and asked if they are languishing in a scrap pile awaiting removal or some such system ? Bit of a long shot but can't think of alternative. No redress I'm afraid.

Mick Richards  

[oxf2]

Thanks Mick,

I'll be in touch with the firm and will report back. I'll also do a closer inspection of the rad tomorrow, as I didn't really have time to do so today, and indeed, I was so shocked at what I was seeing, I could hardly gather my thoughts.

[John Morrison]

Think thats a previous rebuilders ad.

John.

[harrytr5]

Different rad?

Regards Harry

[Motorsport Mickey]

9 hours ago, John Morrison said:

Think thats a previous rebuilders ad.

John.

Possibly John, but Coventry Radiators (CovRad) was the largest radiator manufacturer in the UK since the 1920s onwards, and so likely to be a supplier to major car manufacturers down the road...like Triumph.

Mick Richards  

[RogerH]

34 minutes ago, harrytr5 said:

Different rad?

Regards Harry

The lower pic with 5412 on it - the 'after' pic does show signs where it had been

 

Roger

[stuart]

To get rid of those stampings they would have had to cut the section out of the rad top, seems unlikely they would have gone to the trouble when just replacing the core, more like thats the cap from another repro rad.

Stuart.

 

Edited April 4, 2022 by stuart

[mikej]

Well, when a rad re-coring company in Essex re-cored my TR3's radiator it also came back with the Coventry Radiator's soldered-on plates missing. I was told that they and others had been threatened with legal action by a Dagenham based company for falsely implying the OEM. They could not fight the corporate and decided to remove all OEM badges from that point on.  I have since removed two such badges from a scrappy and will solder them on next time the read is out!

Madness.

MikeJ

[oxf2]

Thank you to all for your replies

The characters were not stamped into the radiator itself as I had previously supposed. The characters are--as MikeJ says just above--stamped onto thin plates, which plates are then silver-soldered onto the radiator. I have to say, I would never had known this just by looking at the characters, those silver-solder workers were skilled enough to make the two separate pieces of metal merge together to look just like one. Here's the Coventry Radiator & Presswork Co. Ltd. plate:

[oxf2]

As for the practice of simply removing and discarding these plates, the radiator-reconditioner chap seemed to think this was fairly well accepted procedure, unworthy of a second thought nor comment. But to me, the practice of removing and discarding these old plates is philistine, and ought to be deprecated.

[Lebro]

I think you will find the plates are soft soldered, not silver soldered.

Bob

[Ralph Whitaker]

I suppose that if you wanted to keep them for concours purposes it pays to let the re conditioners know, although I appreciate you thought they were part of the top tank.

The plate itself though is fairly ratty, amazing how that one little gap in the soldering on the bottom right hand corner was enough to let moisture in and rust the plate.

Ralph