I have a swap meet radiator that fits perfectly in my A-body and has plenty of core area/thickness. But the brackets locate it a little too close to the water pump for the fan I want to use, and big-block A-bodies are always tight.

After going to the one radiator shop in my town (any others will be 1-2 hours one way), I trial-fitted it today and I'm not sure he moved anything. In fact, I am suspicious that he just spray-painted it black!

So as usual, if I want something done right, I have to do it myself!

Are there any special tricks to relocating the brackets (obviously, keep the heat off the core or any other part I don't want melted)... Googling shows that most people are using 50/50 tin/lead solid wire solder and brush flux (basically, plumbing solder) and a small oxyacetylene torch tip. All of which I have.

Or is this one of those "leave it to the pros" jobs, and I should just find a competent shop that actually listens to what I want done. Thanks for any advice.

I did mine with a propane torch !! It doesn't need a tone of solder.

I decided to have a try. What I needed to move is not the thin bracket that solders to the top and bottom tank, but the heavy L-bracket that connects those vertical parts to the core support. That took a fair bit more heat than my propane torch would have created (I used a small tip and a neutral-to-rich flame on my oxyacetylene setup).

So the brackets came off relatively easily, and I also found several square inches of rust where the previous "professional" hadn't cleaned or fully soldered them. That came off with a Scotchbrite disc, then I fluxed and retinned both sides. So far so good.

But I couldn't get a good bond when resoldering. The brackets tended to warp a bit with the heat (or maybe they were warped to start with), and due to the position I couldn't clamp them in place either...

Anyhow I now have them exactly where I want them. Now to find a radiator shop who can solder them on properly... and pressure-test to make sure my ham-handed efforts didn't create a new leak!

Of course, NOW it occurs to me that a better approach might have been to unsolder both parts of the bracket from the radiator, then join them without fear of damaging the core, and finally resolder it to the tanks. Wonder if that's how a shop would do it?

that's how I move my radiator