Mike 38sc's radiators

[Paul93SC]

I received my radiator from Mike (38sc) and I've just got to say I'm one happy puppy! This radiator is awsome! I'm glad I waited and purchased this over the alternatives out there. This is a bolt-on piece as well! - no modifications required. Mike does very nice work!

[charged92]

[fast Ed]

Very sweet ... the 'bling' factor has to be worth a tenth off your e.t.

That's a mod I'd like to do myself before next season. Let us know how the installion goes, Paul.

cheers,
Ed N.

[shotbirdsc]

I have one from him too. Very easy to install and looks great. Check out the group buys on large sc engraved rad caps. When I installed mine that was the only thing that this thing needed to finish it off.

http://www.sccoa.com/forums/showthread.php?t=47839

If anyone is looking for a rad, Mike is a good guy to deal with.

[ipeefreely]

Hey, I was wondering how much that set you back Cdn? Its super sweet and I was thinking of picking one up in the future. It will look great in your car!

[Paul93SC]

Hi Eric... so you were the "other" Canadian buyer huh? I remember Mike mentioning he had 2 orders from up here. I looked at those rad caps (and they do look sweet) but I think I'll pass for now. I'd like to see yours though... can you post a pic?

Jay... I got real lucky on the price! Back when I ordered, our Canadian buck was in the low 90's! Also, price wasn't a major concern regarding my choice... cooling capacity, quality, and drop-in fit were, in that order. In many cases you "get what you pay for", and I didn't want to go cheap on the radiator.

Here's all the details, (provided by Mike himself)

Originally Posted by Mike 38sc

What I'm offering is a "Hand Made Radiator". This means each and every component of these radiators is made personally by ME with no factory stamped out parts. That means I buy sheets of .065 thick 6061-T6 Aluminum and cutout, bend and shape each and every piece that goes into building one of these rads with my own hands. I do not have a machine stamping out endtanks and brackets by the 100's every minute or so. What this means is my end tanks and brackets are thicker and stronger than production line stampings, but it also means that it takes more time to build my rads so keep that in mind. Since my rads are "Hand Built" each one has a personality all it’s own and there are no 2 that are 100% exactly alike.

There are 2 parts in my rads that ARE NOT made by me and are made by outside manufacturers. The first and most important part that is NOT made by me is the core itself. My cores are custom made for me to my specs and they’re not CHEAP. I had to take this route because NO ONE makes a core for their standard inventory the size needed to build an SC rad. The fact that this core is NOT standard inventory almost triples the price of the core itself and I cannot get around that unless I order 100 or more of them at one time.
But I was made an offer that I'll talk more about later.
My cores are and always have been 100% Fully Furnace Brazed and I was the first to offer that type of quality rad core to the SC community, NOT some big rad company. They are constructed with 2 rows of 1" tubes and have 17 cooling fins per inch.

The second part I outsource is the FULL SIZE BILLET FILLERNECKS. I do not use the cast necks that the BIG company's use, oh but they will put a billet neck on one of their rads for $30.00 extra. Well let me tell you the dirty little truth about that. A Billet neck costs $1.00 more than a cast neck, so why even offer that clunky cast neck in the first place? Answer: Extra money in their pockets that’s why! My rads with billet necks are cheaper in price than their rads with billet necks and even cheaper in price than their rads with cast necks. A normal full sized filler neck means that you can use ANY of the std size 16 psi BILLET radiator caps that are out there with oh say the Ford emblem engraved on it for instance.

My rads have a Weatherhead 175 drain cock already installed in them when you open the box, and for those of you that don’t know about the Weatherhead 175 drain cock it is the MOST commonly available drain cock on the planet. You can buy them at ANY parts store should yours ever wear out and there made of Brass.

I build my own heat exchangers for cooling the tranny's in my auto tranny models. I DO NOT use those dinky little coils of tubing that most rad co.'s use. My coolers (heat exchanger) are 1 3/4" in diameter and have a 1" diameter tube running through the center for coolant water to run through and they're 13" long. These are HD coolers and are very efficient.

I also make a rad to fit the MP FMIC and its the same rad as the stock replacement however it does not have all the framework and bracketry installed. What that means is you don’t have to buy a new rad and take a hacksaw to it and cut all of that stuff off like the fellas that didn’t get one of my rads had to do. Another thing is you get the rad for a cheaper price since it doesn’t have all the framework and brackets on it. You don’t need it, so why pay for it and then chop it off and throw it away?

Here's my current pricing:

Stock type replacement rads:
5 speed model-$495.00
Auto tranny model-$510.00

MP FMIC models:
5 speed model-$350.00
Auto tranny model-$365.00

ALL models of radiators have a $30.00 shipping charge to add to the price. This shipping charge is NON negotiable and the reason is this. These rads once boxed up are classified by UPS as OVERSIZED and that means even though they weigh only about 14 lbs boxed. I have to pay for shipping (70 lbs). I do not do the boxing of the rads myself; they are boxed at a shipping service in very good box's and wrapped in large bubble wrap with foam peanuts as the filler in most cases. The actual cost of shipping one of these rads including the shipping material runs me $36.00-$38.00 depending on the model, so you're already getting a break on the shipping. I also FULLY insure each shipment so that incase there is a disaster YOU nor I get hit and take a loss. I'm sure you can’t afford to and I know I can’t take a loss like that.

Now I need to talk about the deposit:

I have always asked for a good faith deposit of %50 of the rad cost up front and in the beginning I waited until I had said deposit in hand before ordering the core for the rad. The last couple of months I began taking a persons Email conformation to me that the check was in the mail, and on trust I would go ahead and order the cores BEFORE money was in my hand.

I'm sorry to have to make this stand but I will NO LONGER order cores on trust before money is in my hand. I DO NOT want to be this way about it but I've been forced to.

Another modification to my deposit policy is as follows:

YOU are ordering a CUSTOM BUILT rad and you WILL forfeit (spelling) your deposit if YOU back out of the deal AFTER I have ordered the CUSTOM BUILT core. NO EXCEPTIONS! Except maybe your own death. I'm sorry to have to take this stand but I just got hit with this and I bit the bullet only because in that instance I feel I'm somewhat at fault there. That however will not happen again because I WILL NOT have any blame from here on out.

Now then I think I've just about touched on everything. But incase I missed something feel free to contact me at:

brightlightfab@wmconnect.com

...with your questions or orders.

[shotbirdsc]

Hey Paul,

I don't have the rad cap yet, I only have a CTC one on the car right now I just got an email though that they are ready to ship out. I'll snap a couple pictures of the rad installed tonight though it sure is a pretty piece.

Is yours installed yet?

[Paul93SC]

Is yours installed yet?

No, not yet... I just got my car back! (AOD problems after a rebuild - I'll post all about this in the near future). Hopefully next week I'll get a chance to install it.

[shotbirdsc]

Here's a installed picture