Just a quick qquestion. Can i repaint a radiator? And also can i paint the "grill part" . Last, do i need to used hight temperature paint

Thanks

Yes, Yes, Not unless you want to

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Videos - Turbocharged A-Series on Dyno & at Wakefield
Mafs waz not my strong subgeckt at skkol

Even the radiator places just use "el cheapo" spray enamel.

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Too many cars, and too little time.

My top and bottom tanks have ben 2pac'd and have been fine.

Give the tanks a light sand, and use some wax/grease remover on the tanks/fins. Give it a good hose down, let it dry well. Also use some primer on the tanks.

Dont go painting the fins to full on, just give them a light coat, u never really see them anyways.

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http://www.youtube.com/user/Hanras

Thanks guy's

I should mention that you want to cover with paint to stop corrosion - if you want it to look pretty make sure you use 2pak, anything else will dull slightly from the heat (though it shouldn't come off).

Don't use acrylic (on anything - it's just crap)

Daniel

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Videos - Turbocharged A-Series on Dyno & at Wakefield
Mafs waz not my strong subgeckt at skkol

i painted my radiator in cheepo paint and it cracked off - i would do it in heat proof paint (maybe i made it too thick)

Brenton

Don't muck around, while the radiator is out take it to a radiator repairer and get them to clean the inside and paint the outside.
There is no point in painting a stuffed or clogged radiator.

I paint stripped and polished the brass top up on mine. Hey I jsut like shiney stuff undere the bonnet. Being brass, it does require regular polishing, but I only do it before a show or a photo and it onlt take a minute, but the polish seems to dull with the heat.

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1964 Morris 850, 1330 Supercharged - 81.8hp atws.
1975 Leyland Mini S 1100S powered - Nice and reliable.
1977 Leyland Mini LS - Project LS-T

They paint them black for a reason.

Done i paint it black, mat black. I have no idea what sort of paint as the can dident say. It look much better. The radiator was filled with dirt, i clean it and paint it along with the bracket. Dont know haw long this pain will last but at least it's clean and protected from rust. So mission accomplished

How did you clean it ??? Inside, we are asking about

I used a "solution" of water and degreaser. I used the the degreaser air tool to spray inside until the water drain clean at the bottom. After that i fill it wit clean water and shake it, did that a couple of time, the water was comming clean so i assume the radiator is now quite clean.

Please told me i dident stuff anything up, as i ussualy do

No - you havn't stuffed any thing up however !!!

All radiators work by having hot coolant flow down tubes while cool air (guided by fins) blows past these tubes. Over a period of time, in all radiators, these tubes begin to fill up with sludge and become partially or totally blocked. The only way to fix this is to take your radiator to a radiator specialist where they unsolder the top and bottom tanks on the radiator and physically push the sludge out using a long thin rod.

Then they use a chemical cleaner to remove the last traces of the sludge before soldering the tanks back on. Finally they paint the radiator for you. They also pressure test it and check that none of the tubes are about to burst under normal pressure. The tubes are also called the "core"

Just using a chemical such as you did does very little, unfortunately, towards cleaning a radiator. A mini does not have much extra cooling capacity and the core only needs to be maybe 10% blocked and the mini radiator struggles to cope.

Since they are such a pain to remove and refit, you had the perfect opportunity to have all this done while you had the radiator out of the car.

But you have not stuffed anything - just missed the opportunity.

Thanks Mike, but the radiator is still out and will be for a while, is it realy worth doing?