Ok, the wife's car had an engine fire, posted on that sometime ago. Well one of the things that was affected was the radiator, the fire got hot enough that it loosened the solder from one of the side mount flanges. I have pressure tested the radiator and it seems to have survived the fire So I need to reattach the support to the radiator and I am unsure of how to go about re-soldering the support to the radiator. I understand how to sweat copper pipe, but was unsure if you used the same heat source, flux and solder material... It is a factory type radiator...not an aluminum one Thanks in advance
Just clean the areas real well. Use lead solder from the supply house.I have tried soldering radiator brackets with the plumbing stuff and its not as strong.
We usually silver soldered mounting straps on BUT like said you can just solder them on if it's not a vibration problem....................clean, clean, clean before soldering.
Use some liquid soldering acid to prep the area. Heat the area and rub the solder over the area to "tin" the spot where they will be together. Dont overheat the area and melt off the tinning. The tin is the agent in the solder that sticks to the steel and lead. It is like an adapter.This is the same process as leading a body panel. Use a propane torch or acetelene torch with a very cool flame. Practice makes perfect Ron
I pull the bracket away from the radiator warm it up and wipe the old excess solder off the piece with a clean rag. It was already tinned at the factory and will stay that way. I use a screwdriver or a hammer handle to hold the bracket to the core as it is heated to melt the solder. Add solder as needed. The hard part is getting both the bracket and the core up to the melting temp and remove the heat so that the solder on both pieces flow together and become one without movement to break the bond. Don't get carried away with the heat. With both pieces tinned all you need is enough heat to melt the solder and let it flow together. Use acid flux for radiators.
Yeah make sure to localize the heat, put wet rags as close as possible around the area. They may burn a little but just have a spray water bottle. Relatively quickly after you solder it you can also spray the work area down. TP
NAPA still sells a Silver solder and flux kit in a plastic tube. Ask the oldest guy in the store... Just what's needed for radiator and other stuff needing a little tougher filler. Fixes my eyeglass frames also after crushing them under the car
Hahaha.. Kinda sad I took an old wheel to the tire place just about month ago, and the first thing I say to the kid who says can I help you is "Yeah go get me the oldest guy you got in the place".. I usually just use an oxy torch and acid flux and whatever solder is at hand... Though on a brace I might just use brass.
I used to work in a rad shop a lot of years ago and what we did was to use acid flux and solder to do the job. How we localized the heat was placing the rad in water till it was submerged almost up to where we were soldering. That kept everything we didnt want to heat up cool, things like tank seams etc.
Went to NAPA, picked up silver solder/flux. Clean the shit outta the radiator and the side mount. Silver solder with MAPP gas, worked just like sweating copper pipe... Thanks everyone for the advice... Here are some crappy pics.. sorry not a photographer...
Looks like it came out fine, good work! The rad on my 880 split a seam and I contemplated fixing it myself but when the rad shop said $60 with a pressure test and warranty I was happy to fork it over.
The Jalopy Journal
