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Hi all,

thought I would post a question regarding original radiators / non genuine .

My car had this type, when I found it =




It also had a badge on the engine side (soldered on)




I asumed this was the original (factory fitted) radiator.

Then I saw this thread viewtopic.php?f=5&t=5842 and noticed that the car has the same badge on its radiator.


ivor badger replied =

ivor badger wrote:I suspect the radiator is a repair as the only ones I have seen with manufacturers labels are reconditioned.

I thought it was a bit strange if I had a radiator, that was reconditioned by a British companie.

I then went to my garage and checked the cars & radiators I have, and found 3 with the Coventry top.
These had badges soldered on the side, and the correct bottom with draining screw.

All the ones with blank top (no name anywhere) had no badges on them, and no draining in the bottom.

Did BMC/BL sell reconditioned radiators ? or did Marston supply BMC/BL with radiators ?

As I stated on the other thread, do we have our own companies that restore radiators here in DK,
so how would 3 UK ones end up in my garage

I could understand if it was only the one that was on my car when I found it, as it has been in UK twice,
but this does not explain the other 2 ?

Hope to hear from some owners of lowmilage cars, retaining their original radiators



Jens Christian

dont forget the 'back in the day' antifreeze wasnt nearly as good (or as cheap) as it is today, and many cars simply ran without it or only added it in winter.

it only takes one cold night to cause problems, so its possible that leaking rads where a far more common (and repairable, compared to those rubbish alloy and plastic things that are used now) it wold make sense for a dealer / garage to just get new cores put into secondhand tops & bottoms.

ive just had a new core put in my bus rad, a pretty easy job (though not cheap, due to the size of it!)

And don't forget it's easy to leave a pair of pliers on the rad top, that then get ploughed through the core when you start the engine

I was only a young apprentice at the time (that's my excuse, and I'm sticking with it )

guru_1071 wrote:dont forget the 'back in the day' antifreeze wasnt nearly as good (or as cheap) as it is today, and many cars simply ran without it or only added it in winter.

it only takes one cold night to cause problems, so its possible that leaking rads where a far more common (and repairable, compared to those rubbish alloy and plastic things that are used now) it wold make sense for a dealer / garage to just get new cores put into secondhand tops & bottoms.

ive just had a new core put in my bus rad, a pretty easy job (though not cheap, due to the size of it!)

Yes I agree, thats most likely what happened.

Got a link to the company that owns the Marston name, and have send them a mail.

Maybe my radiator is a exchange unit ? but I think the badge is nice, and will let it stay.

Those alloy/plastic things are not nice = cheapo sheit

I have seen quit a few on Mini,s
(not the new ones) but Mini,s as in Austin & Morris

andy1071 wrote:And don't forget it's easy to leave a pair of pliers on the rad top, that then get ploughed through the core when you start the engine

I was only a young apprentice at the time (that's my excuse, and I'm sticking with it )

Radiator cap will do just as much damage you dont have to check it - just take my word for it

Coventry Radiators ( COV RAD ) would have been the original supplier to BMC

251 ENG wrote:Coventry Radiators ( COV RAD ) would have been the original supplier to BMC

This is also what I expected, then there are the Marston badges, they were most likely fitted when BMC/BL had radiators rebuilt.

I think the clue might be in reading the Marston label.

ivor badger wrote:I think the clue might be in reading the Marston label.

Hi Ivor,


There is no mention of "rebuilt" or "recon" on the badge , only "job no" , and a very high no.

On their website they say =

"We have been trusted suppliers to steelworks, car plants and a wide verity of manufacturing companies for decades"

so I still want to find evidence that BMC/BL sold the Marston badged type as reconditioned ?
this will explaien how they ended up in DK ?

Unless they were fitted on new BMC/BL cars too ?

I also have some with a round brass badge, that only has a no.


Jens Christian

JC T ONE wrote:

ivor badger wrote:I think the clue might be in reading the Marston label.

Hi Ivor,


There is no mention of "rebuilt" or "recon" on the badge , only "job no" , and a very high no.

On their website they say =

"We have been trusted suppliers to steelworks, car plants and a wide verity of manufacturing companies for decades"

so I still want to find evidence that BMC/BL sold the Marston badged type as reconditioned ?
this will explaien how they ended up in DK ? unless they werent fitted on new BMC/BL cars ?

I also have some with a round brass badge, that only has a no.


Jens Christian

The label is shown as a branch label, not a factory label. Thus someone went into a Marston branch and had the radiator rebuilt. The BMC stores were not the only source of rebuilt radiators. My square top S radiator was repaired by Clydesdale Radiator after accident damage even though the car was repaired by a BMC dealer.

JC T ONE wrote: I also have some with a round brass badge, that only has a no.

Mine is like that, I assumed it was a batch number or something similar from Coventry Radiators.

Tim