Farmall Cub

So I've got this radiator from the 48. When it was disassembled there was nothing wrong with it. Id like to restore the brass and clean the fins. Is there a tried, true and safe technique for cleaning the brass and the tarnish off the fins?

Love to hear them and always - thanks.

Ken

Can't be of much help, except when I worked at GE in Hudson Falls, when I got out of the Army, we rebuilt capacitors...We had a strip tank for cleaning used capacitor tanks...One dip and all paint, rust etc was gone...Guys used it on the sly for just what your describing...Took all the paint of radiators and left the brass gleaming ....Don't remember what type of acid was in there though....Best I can do ....Dave

A gleaming brass radiator on a CUB is not typical of any new CUB delivered to a customer. The original was, as far as I know, painted black and then received overspray as the tractor was painted. Black aids in heat transfer as it hastens heat radiation.
Gleaming brass does not stay that way for very long unless regularly polished.

Bus Driver wrote:A gleaming brass radiator on a CUB is not typical of any new CUB delivered to a customer. The original was, as far as I know, painted black and then received overspray as the tractor was painted. Black aids in heat transfer as it hastens heat radiation.
Gleaming brass does not stay that way for very long unless regularly polished.

This is exactly the kind of information I was looking for. I'll get the radiator in total clean enough to paint black as I'm sure not going to take the hood off to polish the brass. I love my Cub, but once this is done, I wanna be in the seat. The only thing that will be different on mine is there will be no red over-spray.

Thanks for the help, Ken

Ken:

Since you have it off, maybe you should consider taking it to a radiator repair shop. They can test the rad after they boil it out. If there are any leaks they can fix em right then, and you will know for sure that it is tickety-boo

I've cleaned a few out with a shop vacuum and a nozzle brush, just working back and forth and sucking up the crud. Don't pressure wash it!!!! Pressure washing will blow holes in the tubes..

If it is not leaking, a radiator shop boiling out may start a leak, most shops like to re-core not repair.

I was figuring you'd paint it afterward, not leave it gleaming brass....Anyone who's brasso'd a military belt buckle wouldn't want to do a radiator....