Of course!! What should have been the simplest of things now is a huge mess. Tried to unscrew radiator drain plug and then entire threading on the radiator just peeled off (without much force too boot). Drain plug is so damb tight I still can’t get off. Is there any solution? Am I screwed and just now have to replace the entire radiator. So $&@$ pissed off right now

 

Thats not what a radiator drain fitting looks like. I think the previous owner cross threaded that in there.....either you need avradiator shop or get a champion radiator off of Ebay if you are tight on cash

 

Thats not what a radiator drain fitting looks like. I think the previous owner cross threaded that in there.....either you need avradiator shop or get a champion radiator off of Ebay if you are tight on cash

 

I just had this happen to me.
you have to heat the larger female nut part and then break it loose.
I put the male part in a vise.

Radiator shops carry a new part to solder in or I suppose you could try to do it yourself.

 

That an easy DIY for a guy with moderate soldering skills and a propane torch. Or It might be worthwhile to take it to a radiator shop and have them hot-tank it...and clean out the insides too. You could do a cooling system flush afterwards too on your own...and that does a good job usually. So you have a couple options.

If the radiator shop says it's no good, take it home and do it yourself. They're probably trying to sell you a new one. Brass radiator like that is really nice. Problem with aluminum is the pH requirements for aluminum and brass are very different. Brass is a noble metal. Aluminum isn't. I could go into the whole science, but you have mixed metals in your cooling system and heater core...and the only way for an aluminum radiator to last as long as that Brass radiator is to keep the pH of the coolant within a very narrow range (which nobody does). So, keep the brass radiator.

You can remove the paint in the area with a propane torch, and clean the area to be soldered with some phosphate cleaner on a rag ...which you can get at any Home Depot. Get a new drain off ebay. You could do it yourself for free in 30 minutes. But if you don't have any idea what you're doing, let a shop handle it.

I've soldered a bunch of radiators after having radiator shop do ****-poor jobs. It's not difficult for small repairs like that. But again, if you aren't feeling like you want to do it, have a radiator shop hot-tank it and they should be able to do a nice job.

 

That's what my '77 looks like also. Minus the damage.

Bad news: Fan, belts, shroud have to come out.
Good news: Should be an easy fix at a Rad Shop.

I would not put a petcock or that plug back in it after repairs.
Summit sells a sacrificial anode rod that fits the hole perfectly. This type of rod / drainplug will help with electrolysis issues of dissimilar metals in the cooling system also known as corrosion. You have iron, steel and aluminum parts = corrosion.

A dab of Permatex Water-pump & Water-neck RTV on the plugs threads will help next time.

Just noticed this is an automatic. Those Rads will require a lot more cussing to remove lines than manual trans. It's all doable. Good luck.
Looks like one of the lines is ripped.

 

Option #1 - Replace Radiator
Option #2 - Take the radiator out and bring it to a Radiator Shop - they can solder a replacement fitting into the radiator. But - Good 'Ol Fashioned Radiator Shops are getting quite difficult to find, and while it isn't a "big job" - they do have to get the area they are working with clean - so the solder will adhere - so it's not going to be a super cheap job.

 

What about one of those expanding rubber plugs. Ya know the kind with the bolt in the center. You put the plug in the hole and tighten the bolt which expands the plug making it tight in the hole. They sell them for stripped out drain bolts and such in different sizes.
Maybe not a permanent repair. But wouldn't need to pull rad.

 

A quick goggle search.

Ignore prices. I'm in Australia. But you get the idea. Would certainly buy you some time.

 

A lot of folks above have suggested proper fixes. For those reading who are dreading this happening with their own radiator, here's my advice:
DO NOT ATTEMPT TO UNSCREW/OPEN THE DRAIN ON YOUR OLD RADIATOR! Unless it has been open in the last year or two, there's an extremely high probability of breaking the solder joint. To drain all but about an inch of coolant from the radiator, use a siphon.

 

While I believe it's really shitty what happened to the OP. Gezz, I've been using the drain **** on Radiator's all my life. (And I'm old). And I never had this happen to me!
I think I will continue to use the drain on the radiator for it's intended purpose.

 

Did you have shop do it? I was able to get threaded plug off at least

 

First time I tried with this car, mistake. At least yours has been off and you know you didn’t over crank like hell like the bozo who had mine. Guess I’m the bozo now

 

Wondering how challenging it would be to permanently seal?

 

That sucks. Been there except it was the trans oil lines on a Monte Carlo. I’m bummed for you.

When you pull the radiator, better budget for the “while I’m in there” projects as well.

 

Ask bubba about that while he is sitting on the side of the road waiting for a flatbed.

The coolant is already out. Have a helper remove the hood.
Remove fan, belts, hoses, two tranny lines. Loosen shroud and sit the shroud on the water-pump hub.
Now remove the Rad.

 

If they need to put a larger brass washer in there to fill in the gap, they should know enough to do that ....and work it out as needed. If they don't know enough to do that....take it to another shop which has 10% amount of resourcefulness. Radiator shops regularly do large truck and construction machine radiators...which are VERY expensive to replace and could take days or a week to get. But basically the same thing as your radiator...but larger. They get damaged radiators where fans chew them up...this should be a piece of cake for them. Car parts are cheap compared to construction equipment parts.

Take it to a radiator shop and let them do it right. It should be a quick job for them. It's about as easy as it gets.

 

Based on your user name I'm guessing it's a '78?

In that case, removing the radiator is not hard. You certainly do not need to remove the hood, or if you are careful, even the fan shroud. My wife and I got the rad removal and replacement down to an hour (don't ask why!) We did remove the fan, to avoid damage to the rad, but once the hoses are released (the rubber trans cooler lines are the toughest to get off the pipes) and the two attaching brackets at the top of the rad are removed, it will lift enough to allow the shroud to be pulled up and slightly backwards, and them you can lift the rad out.

If you go down the route of changing the radiator (to a stock item of course - it will be all it needs!) then it would be worth also getting two new fittings for the trans cooler. I found it impossible to remove them from our old rad, and I even tried when it was "scrap" but they would not budge.

 

Well the good news is I already changed the trans cooler lines so those should be ok to come off. Calling a few places now to see if they can repair, I’m just googling radiator repair; finding a lot of general car repair results. Any advice on how to find these rad shops?!

Otherwise just calling car shops to feel out their expertise

 

It used to be body shops would sometimes do radiator repair on the side. Old timer shops. You could call up some heavy equipment (skid steer/backhoe/excavator) parts or service places (John Deere/Gehl/Bobcat/Case, etc) ..and ask them who does it in your area. Don't ask the sales guys...they don't know crap. Or like a local old-school mechanic shop. Just tell them it's a classic car. The knee-jerk response will be, "Just buy a new one". But if they understand the problem they can direct you to a place if they know one.

Places which do drivelines....or spring repair, they'd know. You could call a bodyshop, they might know.

There's probably a Radiator shop in the back of a building which you've driven by 100 times and never knew they were there.

Or you could just go buy some solid-core pipe solder for $4.99, flux for a couple bucks, and a cheap propane torch kit and do it yourself in the time it would take you to drive to the radiator shop. Buy a new drain **** off ebay. Practice on something ahead of time. Soldering is a piece of cake. Practice on some copper pipe fittings. Personally I'd probably just buy a piece of brass sheet from the hardware store, cut it the size of a quarter or large enough to overlap the hole by 1/4". Then solder the damn hole shut. Problem solved forever. How often do people REALLY use those drain ***** and they are a common source of leaks and headaches. You don't really need the drain. Just loosen the lower clamp and loosen the hose...it drains better that way anyhow. If you do a coolant flush you need to remove the radiator hose usually to get all the coolant out anyway. That would make it easier and never have to worry about future leaks. Spray with black paint when you're finished.