Damaged my new PTS radiator today.

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INEEDAGN

Seen Your Member
Joined
Feb 28, 2003
Messages
4,785
Was lowering it into the car and trying to steer it around the ac lines when it slipped out of my hand. Landed at an angle against a burr on the radiator support and gouged three tubes on the front side, right in the middle. One of them looks solid yet but the other two make me very uneasy, especially since the car is doing 2300 miles on the power tour in june. Local welding shop says they can TIG a little dingleberry on them to ensure they don't leak, but i'm still not going to sleep now 'till it's installed and heat cycled a few times.

Anybody else have a similar story to make me feel like I'm not the dumbest S.O.B. on the planet?

bob
 
Scratched the hell out of my $150 4" MAF pipe when I tried to install it in a hurry one day.
 
my buddy jacked up his 1998ish monte carlo by the front part of the cradle, it slid out, car dropped, and pushed the lower part of the core support i guess, up a good 3-4 inches. radiator was bowed really bad but it is amazing how strong those tube are. bent stuff back, alittle custom body work! and the car drove 400 miles one day and then 700 miles a couple days later! no leaks. hope that helps you get to sleep:)
 
Was lowering it into the car and trying to steer it around the ac lines when it slipped out of my hand. Landed at an angle against a burr on the radiator support and gouged three tubes on the front side, right in the middle. One of them looks solid yet but the other two make me very uneasy, especially since the car is doing 2300 miles on the power tour in june. Local welding shop says they can TIG a little dingleberry on them to ensure they don't leak, but i'm still not going to sleep now 'till it's installed and heat cycled a few times.

Anybody else have a similar story to make me feel like I'm not the dumbest S.O.B. on the planet?

bob

Had a aluminum oil pan came in with a dimple (as if someone dropped the welding gun) on it. The dimple didn't break through but had my welder put a little dingleberry on it, good as new.

Just bring the rad to the welder and have him do what's needed. No need to worry.

Billy T.
gnxtc2@aol.com
 
I've got a good one. Please keep in mind this was about 20 years ago when I was a teenager. :rolleyes:

I was pulling the trans in my 81 Regal. Had the car up on ramps in the front and I was underneath, already had pulled the driveshaft and was working on the bell housing when I felt the car begin to roll..... I grabbed the frame and held the car in place. My girlfriend at the time was there in the garage with me, with her car parked behind the car I was working on. I yelled to her to come lean against the rear of the car. She did and I rolled out from under the car and went to get my wheel chocks. As I am walking back to the car, I see her take her step away from the rear of the car (she was just testing it, she said) and the car starts rolling off the ramps. I leap across and try to get behing the car to stop it.......too much weight and momentum. T-boned her new Sunbird convertible, bashed in the fender and door. To this day, we have an expresssion we share : "no TESTING!" Yep, she still married this doofus, can you believe that??????
 
Make sure you go to a welding shop with a tig, not the local radiator place. Radiator places are usually not the best to deal with aluminum radiators.
 
Scratched the hell out of my $150 4" MAF pipe when I tried to install it in a hurry one day.

I did that too!! Only mine is aluminum that I polished myself, so I fixed it. Damn near impossible to keep those pipes scratch free though.

Anyway, found an aluminum radiator in the scrap pile today that has similar looking tubes. The welding shop (owned by my uncle) is gonna do some testing on it before touching my baby.

Still sucks though. This is the reason you always want to give yourself plenty of time to do upgrades.
 
I've got a good one. Please keep in mind this was about 20 years ago when I was a teenager. :rolleyes:

I was pulling the trans in my 81 Regal. Had the car up on ramps in the front and I was underneath, already had pulled the driveshaft and was working on the bell housing when I felt the car begin to roll..... I grabbed the frame and held the car in place. My girlfriend at the time was there in the garage with me, with her car parked behind the car I was working on. I yelled to her to come lean against the rear of the car. She did and I rolled out from under the car and went to get my wheel chocks. As I am walking back to the car, I see her take her step away from the rear of the car (she was just testing it, she said) and the car starts rolling off the ramps. I leap across and try to get behing the car to stop it.......too much weight and momentum. T-boned her new Sunbird convertible, bashed in the fender and door. To this day, we have an expresssion we share : "no TESTING!" Yep, she still married this doofus, can you believe that??????

thats a pretty good one:)

just to add to my story above, before we started the car back up, we filled it up and pressure tested it to 17psi and it didn't drop at all, and that's a 3.4L GM engine with 150000+ miles!!!
 
Last summer I was pulling my car up on the trailer to goto the local track. Just before this, I had spent a good 1.5 hours cleaning the car. Well, while pulling the car up on the trailer, with wet slicks, the car slid off the ramps:eek: the pass door slammed into the side rails on my trailer. Ended up having to replace the door:mad: :mad: Finding a good door up here in the midwest isn't cheap or easy either.
 
Ah..SHEESH!!! Damn I'm sorry..

Was lowering it into the car and trying to steer it around the ac lines when it slipped out of my hand. Landed at an angle against a burr on the radiator support and gouged three tubes on the front side, right in the middle. One of them looks solid yet but the other two make me very uneasy, especially since the car is doing 2300 miles on the power tour in june. Local welding shop says they can TIG a little dingleberry on them to ensure they don't leak, but i'm still not going to sleep now 'till it's installed and heat cycled a few times.

Anybody else have a similar story to make me feel like I'm not the dumbest S.O.B. on the planet?

bob

Man Bob, I know how you feel. Sometimes we feel like idiots. But things do happen. Other than your "accident" What do you think of the product? Nice huh?
If I can be any help, please call or email me and I will see what I can do. Maybe I can get the original manufacturer to repair if so needed. Again, I am very sorry.
BUT>>> EVERYBODY ON THIS BOARD HAS DONE 1 DUMB THING OR ANOTHER! DO NOT LET ANYBODY FOOL YA< WE ALL MAKE DUMB A$$ED MISTAKES, ALL OF US!! Don't let it get you down.
or try not to anyway...:smile:

At least UPS didn't screw it up, LOL
Again, if I can help, feel free to get in touch with me.
Bruce
We4
 
Man Bob, I know how you feel. Sometimes we feel like idiots. But things do happen. Other than your "accident" What do you think of the product? Nice huh?
If I can be any help, please call or email me and I will see what I can do. Maybe I can get the original manufacturer to repair if so needed. Again, I am very sorry.
BUT>>> EVERYBODY ON THIS BOARD HAS DONE 1 DUMB THING OR ANOTHER! DO NOT LET ANYBODY FOOL YA< WE ALL MAKE DUMB A$$ED MISTAKES, ALL OF US!! Don't let it get you down.
or try not to anyway...:smile:

At least UPS didn't screw it up, LOL
Again, if I can help, feel free to get in touch with me.
Bruce
We4


IF it can't be repaired, I will look you up about getting it re-cored. I think we'll be able to fix it though. My thoughts? It's YOUR fault for using too smooth of aluminum so I couldn't hang onto it. LOL Actually it looks very nice but it's not in yet. May have to modify the rubbers on the bottom or cut the little tabs on the rad. support if they touch, but I can't tell because it didn't get in that far.

Everybody I showed it to said "Put a hole in the box and call it shipping damage." Sorry guys but I have a concience, even if I can't spell it. Would be hard to claim after a couple weeks anyway.

Will post results when it gets fixed.
 
Just installed my new PT68 about 2 years ago. Was all excited so I took it for a spin. Just as I spooled it up, I remembered that I had let the air filter off and the Air Temp was not secure. Now the PT68 is missing all the fins and the intercooler is full of Air temp sensor!:mad: So that cost me about 500 bones! What an idiot!
 
Just installed my new PT68 about 2 years ago. Was all excited so I took it for a spin. Just as I spooled it up, I remembered that I had let the air filter off and the Air Temp was not secure. Now the PT68 is missing all the fins and the intercooler is full of Air temp sensor!:mad: So that cost me about 500 bones! What an idiot!

OUCH!!!:eek:
 
Here is my tale. After owning the GN since new, at 15 years I decided to give it a new paint job. Took it off the road and spent the whole winter disassembling and sanding everything down to bare metal, then berry prime and urathane prime. 5 months later It is all primed. My buddy just delivered the header panel, which he sanded and primed at the body shop where he worked. I told him to lay it on the floor behind the car where the bumpers were. So we are standing there admiring the car. It looked beautiful in all it's primed glory. Since I was sending it out to have the paint shot I had to mount the bumpers and header. I got all giddy and said "Finally I can do some assembly!! Lets mount a bumper." Now, the bumpers are sitting nicely on a set of saw horses behind the car and I tell my buddy to grab the end of the bumper while I grab the other end. As we lift the bumper off of the saw horses the weight of the other bumper causes it to tip over-SMACK DAB ON TOP OF THE HEADER PANEL!! The bumper smashed the header panel into a gazillion pieces. I just closed the garage door and didn't open it for 2 months.
 
Just installed my new PT68 about 2 years ago. Was all excited so I took it for a spin. Just as I spooled it up, I remembered that I had let the air filter off and the Air Temp was not secure. Now the PT68 is missing all the fins and the intercooler is full of Air temp sensor!:mad: So that cost me about 500 bones! What an idiot!

Haha that story wins the competition. I just installed a new turbo and was pretty scared that I'd crank the car over and hear CLANG as some forgotten/dropped nut or bolt got sucked into the turbo. Luckily that didn't happen. BUT I was so excited to get the car started I forgot that I had left one of the fittings at the oil cooler loose and I left a puddle of oil in the garage. Luckily I saw it after just a few seconds.

The bumper smashed the header panel into a gazillion pieces. I just closed the garage door and didn't open it for 2 months.

LOL. Sometimes I feel like ignoring the garage for a while too.
 
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