Time to Make Another Car Payment on the Corobra

Well, I bought a radiator from NAPA for $112 after tax. Top and bottom hoses for $25 total. I was a little under the weather this week and it snowed here yesterday, but I woke up this morning with a strong desire to tackle the job. A trip to the library to check out the Haynes. I started the work at around 11am. Temps in the low 30's today. Cold but not horrible. Step one, shovel snow off the driveway. Below you'll see a pic of the nice new radiator. Delicious.

Below you'll see my extravagant tool "chest". Basically a socket and wrench set I picked up a few years ago off the clearance aisle at Wal-Mart and a tool box of some other odds and ends.

Vice grips? We don't need no stinking vice grips. Seriously, I don't own a pair of vice grips.

You can only imagine my surprise when I removed the radiator only to find ANOTHER radiator behind it! Holy shit! What did I get myself into? A quick phone call to John and I learn that's an A/C Condenser. ....A/C Condenser.... in case you're taking notes.

And here's a look down into the top of the radiator. Can you even imagine the strain it put on it when I added that Bars Leak about two years ago? I can't believe it worked for a couple of years.

And now some pics of the radiator. There's whole sections of fins missing. She was clearly on her last leg. 17-year-old radiator.




I call this picture "Urban Potpourri".
I am entering it into a photo contest.


In this pic below, I'm doing my part to "class up" the neighborhood. Notice the REX is out. That's because the stock radiator cap didn't fit the new rad. So, I rode the ZRX to get a new one. I come back - frozen - only to run into a second road block: the bottom rad hose is too short. A second bone-chilling ride to yet another auto parts store to get new hoses. But luckily the new hoses worked. Thank goodness because I was running out of patience and daylight.



I finished up right around dark. Frozen but happy. All in all, the work itself was simple as pie. It would have gone smooth as silk if I had just had the right parts to begin with. I saved a few bucks and learned a little. Definitely worth it, even if I did freeze my nuts off.