Old Rads
Several years ago I was restored a 12 cab Ford CMP which uses basically the same rad as the bren carrier. From the information I have gathered, all old rads go bad sooner or later (even NOS ones) as the materials are succeptable to oxidization over time. Rads which have been used and abused have remnants of debris, old coolant, acids etc. which lend to there eventual demise. I had my rad recored with larger tubes but less rows. As in your example if memory serves, the Ford rads are whats called a 4 1/2 core- 4 main rows and a half row at the front hence the tapered shape. The tube size is fairly small. My rebuild shop used a heavy duty 3 row with larger tubes and had to do some fancy fitting work to do the recore. I went through 3 rads to get enough usable pieces to build 1 rad. Upper tank here, lower there, you get the picture. Bottom line was $500 6 years ago and one frustrated craftsman. Actually he told me not to bring him another job like that for a long time! I suggest that it comes down to the use of your project, mine being a truck regularly driven which will make your final decision for you. I'm sure that while sounding expensive $800 is probably a pretty fair current price considering the amount of work involved. Hope this helps.
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