For christmas I got an 800 dollar walker radiator for my stock 1951 f1. It was ordered through Midwest Early Ford by my Wife. My wonderful wife. She spoke with Midwest three different times before pulling the trigger on such an expensive gift. When I unrapped the gift first thing I did was head to the garage and rip the old radiator out. The shroud was rusty so i sanded primed and painted it . I bought some new nuts and bolts lined it up to the radiator and realized there were no holes to mount the shroud to. I called walker and they say their radiators arent made for my shroud they are made for electric fans and their own special shrouds. No thank you i want 100 % original. I called Midwest to let them know they ordered the wrong radiator. I was told to make a bracket. What ? Im not a fabricator. No thank you ill return it. Ok i was told. But if you send it back to walker its going to cost you 20% of your 800 to restock. But for us to stay in good standing with walker send it back to us at midwest and we will just resale it. Im thinking thats fine they will just resale it and ill only be out the 160 in shipping costs from their mistake. Nope they also decided to charge me 20% to restock something they dont stock in the first place. So im now out 320 bucks and midwest early ford gets to sale an item they dont stock and make 160 dollars off of it. GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE. I hope they dont treat all their customers that way

 

Welcome! Do you have any pics of your truck? That's a LOT of money for a radiator.

 

Wow! That's a ton of money for a radiator. Did you look into getting your old radiator re-cored? There has to be some radiator shops left around.

 

Yep im going to get the old one re cored now probably should have done that first of all but she asked what i wanted and new is so nice. I put some pics up now

 

I'm not a big fan of recoring an old radiator. Yeah, maybe when they were 20-30 years old but now that they're all reaching the 60 year mark the tanks have had 60 years of expanding and contracting. I've had a few bad radiator and they all had cracks in the tanks. For the cost of recoring you should have been able to find a new radiator for a few bucks more. The last time I checked into a recore job, maybe 4-5 years ago, I think the recore was $350+, a new radiator from Radiator.com was $400. Radiator.com is a clearing house that puts you in touch with a local radiator shop. I know when I called I was connected with a company in the next town over.

 

Do you think i should look for another new radiator or re core?

 

Like I said, the main problem I see with recoring a 60 year old radiator is you have to use 60 old tanks. If you have a good radiator shop nearby ask them to check the tanks, they should be able to tell you if they're still good. The tanks do expand and contract and after 60 years they've done it a million time and metal does fatigue from moving back and forth.

 

If you still have your old radiator, have the flanges that have the shroud mounting holes soldered onto your new radiator.

I think it's unfair to paint this as MEF ripping you off. The same radiators are available from several vendors and their policies are roughly the same. No matter who you got it from, you'd be in the same position. For the $320, I'd keep the new radiator and either make it work with the shroud, or go electric fan.

 

When I had my radiator redone and outlets changed they put new tanks on with a tranny cooler. The tanks do have a seam where they were narrowed to the correct width.

 

You need to check with Mid-fifty they have radiators which are new but have the total original look. They match the shrouds, all holes are drilled, in other words a direct bolt-in with out no customizing. They come as a four row with a built in transmission cooler, these items are needed if you plan to upgrade motors. Also the price is way cheaper then a walker radiator. Just make sure if you order one you know which inlet and outlet locations you need also size.

 

Ross no matter whether its wal mart , auto zone or midwest. If i ask you for a part and you order me one that you say is a bolt on. Why shoulld i lose 320 bucks when its not? I ask the pros because i dont know . Should I be held responsible when they dont know as well?

 

I'd certainly feel ripped off. A supplier should have knowledge about what products they are selling. Especially given that your wife spoke with them 3 times before the purchase, it should have been made clear that there would be some fabrication work or extra items needed to make it work.

On a purchase such as this where oversized shipping is implemented, the supplier should make it clear up front that it's not a direct bolt-on item.

 

Just wanted to give my welcome to FTE. I checked out your album, good looking truck!
brian...

 

If this was purchased online, I assume a credit card was used, if their mistake, dispute it with the credit card company, they will take of it.

I had similar instances on products and have received 100% credit back from the credit card companies who disputed on my behalf.

 

I'm afraid I'm with Ross on this one. It's not fair to come on to a website like this as a first post, flaming a vendor as a rip-off just because you didn't get what you thought you were getting. Obviously we are only hearing one side of the story, when in fact there's two and the truth is typically somewhere in the middle.

You said you called Walker after the fact and they told you they don't make the radiator you want. That tells me you didn't do your due diligence beforehand. Your wife calls a vendor saying she wants a radiator to fit your truck and that's what she got. You admitted it was the correct radiator for your application, just didn't have the stock shroud flanges you expected. The fact that it wasn't what you expected doesn't make the vendor a rip-off. They offered to take back your special order at a typical return fee. There's a good chance they will have to eat the cost as they now can't rightfully sell a used rad to someone else. At least not at full retail or mail order. They were being kind to you in saying they could.

You had the choice to keep it and make it work or resell it yourself. You chose neither, then came here to complain you weren't treated fairly. Yeah, I'm sorry for your misfortune, but to call someone a rip-off over a misunderstanding, albiet an expensive one, is not right, imho.