From Hot Rod to Custom Cool Car

There comes a time when you have to try and get the best from your wheels. Now is the moment for our Chevy.
I am going to modify it. However I do not want to turn it into a Hot Rod, rather I want to turn it into a Custom Cool Car. While we have been away on a couple occasions the van has started to overheat. Now if we plan to take it to the Rockies, where the hills are steep and long and the weather is often hot then we do not want to spend a lot of tme at the roadside admiring the scenary while the van’s engine cools down. So I have been spending some time researching the best way to uprate the cooling system to cope with the extra load put on it by the weight of the trailer. Back in February someone recommended a guy in Palatka as being good with radiators (not difficult you would think). However, in the intervening months I have found out from GM that there is no way to upgrade the sytem without going to specialist (and expensive) parts. Waldo is only a bout 38,9 miles from Palatka, so I called the guy and he said to bring it over and he would look at it. His advice was to remove the radiator, physically check it was OK and then work from there.
So at 8.00 of Friday I took the van back over. He let the engine cool and then removed the radiator, it was only a thin one called a ‘single core’. He decided that he could find a fatter radiator core and rebuild the radiator, using my original radiator end pieces (which have the hose connections and fixings that hold it on to the body). He eventually found that a super heavy duty upgrade radiator for a 1994 Chevy Pick Up would fit. He managed to order it, have it delivered, dismantle both radiators, rebuild and re-fit to the car and have me on my way back to the trailer by 1.30. I thought that was pretty impressive. Of course the proof will be when we are on the long, lonely, hot, hill-climbs of the Rockies next year. I just hope that I can remain impressed.
The waiting time for the job gave me a chance to go and have a further look at Palatka, which we have passed through a couple of times and visited the ‘Famous Ravine Garden’. Previously documented,it is a bit like Saltburn back in England, though it is not by the sea. I found the historic district and the St Johns River. The most impressive architecture seemed to be a nice railway station. Which looked like it was once the centre of the booming tourist industry in the 20’s and 30’s.