Anyone ever weld an aluminum radiator to fix a leak?

[Romeo1]

Glad it worked out. Anyone else finding this thread down the road, I also had some trouble locating an OE radiator recently and wound up using a lesser known website Newparts.com which was great. Denso in stock and within a few bucks of the best price shown on other websites out of stock. They were a few pages in on Google. Bit of a fright when the right angle pliers slipped off the clamp on assembly but just dinged a fin, it happens. I did try those aluminum brazing rods once on something, can't remember what, but don't recall them working out

Napa is a good source for these also.

 

[thegipper]

Napa is a good source for these also.

I tried Napa and they were also going to be a week plus for the radiator. Some of the other parts stores couldn't even get it.

 

[Romeo1]

I tried Napa and they were also going to be a week plus for the radiator. Some of the other parts stores couldn't even get it.

You found one regardless which is super awesome in current era….. but a week ain’t bad dude. Do you have any idea how many widgets in the world right now a year plus out?

We have some equipment on order that they can’t even give us a date now. The government even rewrote the rules for emergency vehicles with diesels because of the lack of availability of certain def sensors.

Tried to buy my wife a new bike for Christmas, they told me to come back in August, maybe. Left out and found one with the right color even, but it came out of 30% premium vs pre Covid.

I don’t know what kind of magic juju NAPA engages in, but their availability has been hands down orders of magnitude better than a lot of other places these days. Even Toyota starting to dry up on Parts. That’s super scary.

Parts are drying up fast and it kind of sucks.

 

[brillo_76]

Glad to see the rig back on the road. I get my densos from Rock Auto.. Glad to know Napa handles them as well.. I really should just keep a new spare denso on hand. As a mostly have one or 2 3rd gens on the road.. Yet, the 2 that are on the road have new Rads in them, I try to get rid of them every 10 years just to prevent the pink milkshake issues. Plus around here in the rust belt by 10 years the aluminum is starting to oxdize which also will not cool as well as the oxidation doesn't conduct the heat off the coolant as well as clean non oxidize fins..

It the reason whey the ac will not cool correctly the refrigerant by 17 to 20 years you need a new condenser for the exact same reason.

 

[thegipper]

You found one regardless which is super awesome in current era….. but a week ain’t bad dude. Do you have any idea how many widgets in the world right now a year plus out?

We have some equipment on order that they can’t even give us a date now. The government even rewrote the rules for emergency vehicles with diesels because of the lack of availability of certain def sensors.

Tried to buy my wife a new bike for Christmas, they told me to come back in August, maybe. Left out and found one with the right color even, but it came out of 30% premium vs pre Covid.

I don’t know what kind of magic juju NAPA engages in, but their availability has been hands down orders of magnitude better than a lot of other places these days. Even Toyota starting to dry up on Parts. That’s super scary.

Parts are drying up fast and it kind of sucks.

I know, we are living in crazy times. I used to order 55 gallon drums of lacquer thinner for our painting department at work and have them the next day. Now its 6-8 weeks if we are lucky. My neighbor is the plant manager at the chemical plant we order from and he straight up told me, they cannot get it and they order it in massive bulk (tankers via rail).

He said they are struggling just to get barrels because the barrel manufacture can't source steel. Not to mention unless you are a massive company, pallets are virtually impossible to buy in my area. Our pallet supplier basically told us "you are not important/big enough to sell pallets to". We are literally searching by dumpsters in our industrial park to get pallets.

It would definitely be a good idea to keep on hand some common parts that you may think you'll need for your vehicles right now if you can get your hands on them.


LGB

 

[brillo_76]

I know, we are living in crazy times. I used to order 55 gallon drums of lacquer thinner for our painting department at work and have them the next day. Now its 6-8 weeks if we are lucky. My neighbor is the plant manager at the chemical plant we order from and he straight up told me, they cannot get it and they order it in massive bulk (tankers via rail).



He said they are struggling just to get barrels because the barrel manufacture can't source steel. Not to mention unless you are a massive company, pallets are virtually impossible to buy in my area. Our pallet supplier basically told us "you are not important/big enough to sell pallets to". We are literally searching by dumpsters in our industrial park to get pallets.



It would definitely be a good idea to keep on hand some common parts that you may think you'll need for your vehicles right now if you can get your hands on them.





LGB

Yes, I agree its why I have spare starters, Alts and thinking of keeping a spare rad on stock as nothing is worse then really needing it and it's not available or months to get the part..

Sent from my SM-A505U using Tapatalk

 

[thegipper]

Yes, I agree its why I have spare starters, Alts and thinking of keeping a spare rad on stock as nothing is worse then really needing it and it's not available or months to get the part..

Sent from my SM-A505U using Tapatalk

I bought a parts truck a few years ago and it's saved my butt several times.

I recently got the last few odds and ends off of it that I wanted to keep and had a salvage yard come pick it up. Got $200 for it and it was missing most of the major components.

 

[gamefreakgc]

A parts vehicle is a real game-changer. Too bad a 4Runner with a blown engine will still sell for $2000! I used to pick them up for $500 just 5 years ago. Nuts.