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Posted on Feb 23, 2024

A1 Radiator is a manufacturer of after market auto and truck radiator cores in the Toronto area. The company has supplied many of the small

A1 Radiator is a manufacturer of after market auto and truck radiator cores in the Toronto area. The company has supplied many of the small radiator shops and independent garages in the Toronto area for 20 years and is well recognized for quality and workmanship. The owner, Peter Corbin, was very proud of this reputation and kept a close eye on any reported defects, replacing them immediately with new products. This was relatively inexpensive to do due to the very low rate of defects.

As the years went by, A1's business became well known and his radiator cores were shipped as far as Dartmouth, N.S. The plant had three manufacturing lines for auto and two standalone jigs for truck cores. During the summer months the A1 manufacturing plant was very busy, usually having one thousand radiator cores on backorder. Overtime was common on Saturdays.

The plant would produce 200 - 250 car radiators and 15 - 20 truck radiators per day. The truck radiators were much larger and varied in size measuring on average 35" high by 24" wide. They were built using flat copper pre-punched fins inserted in a jig. Then long solder coated brass tubes were driven through the series of fins lined up in the jig. Once all the tubes were in the fins, the core was removed from the jig and dipped in a mild acid flux bath. The core would then be loaded into an oven to allow the solder on the tubes to adhere to the fins. The core would then have brass plates with pre-punched holes applied to the top and bottom of the core. The tubes then had to be manually soldered to the plates. The core was now ready to ship. Top and bottom tanks were reused or if required, purchased separately.

In October of 1974, Nova Scotia Radiator in Dartmouth N.S. placed an order for twelve truck radiators. Peter was thrilled with this news, as he wanted to build the business outside of the Ontario area. The radiators were for Ritter Transport, a large trucking firm with approximately 450 trucks in eastern Canada transporting many types of cargo including gas/oil, dry goods, milk and cars. Six of the radiators were installed in the milk trucks. The remaining six were installed in the dry goods and car delivery trucks. Installation was completed by mid-October 1974.

On May 6^th, 1975, Peter got a call from Dwight Mathews of NSR concerned about the radiator he was looking at on his repair bench in Dartmouth. It was brought in from Ritter transport, milk transport division in Bedford. The lower 20-25 fins on the radiator had in Dwights terms "rotted away like acid was poured on it". The tubes, plates and tanks were OK, but the core was a write off. He wanted a replacement plus his labour costs. Peter asked to have the damaged core returned and a new radiator core was dispatched immediately. The following day another disappointing call. After checking the other milk trucks, all five other radiators showed the same sign of deterioration.

Other Information from Peter's investigation:

Peter investigated and found that the six cores in question were built the week of October 3, 1974 after a short delay due to an oven failure. This was also when the shop foreman, Art Blackie, had brought one of the auto radiator builders in to train on the truck radiator jig in anticipation of Walter Boychuck's retirement after 19 years at A1.
In a discussion with the shipper at Ritter transport, Peter was told that the trucks used in the milk delivery operation were treated with great care and cleaned on a regular basis, partly to comply with all these new by-laws this summer. That problem with the rads must be to do with the new corn fertilizer they're using on the farms these days. Between that and the road salt, no wonder.
In September, A1 had changed their supplier of acid flux for their bath tanks.
The copper supplier representative, Fred Jeffries, was brought into the investigation. Fred commented: "Peter, we have been supplying you with the same grade of copper for the last 10 years, and we have not come across something like this before."

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