Mice and mud daubers in the radiator
Guys: I have this 1949 all original Willys Jeepster with the L134 engine that I am trying to bring back to life. I now have spark and good compression and I should have the fuel system back to working condition in the next few weeks. Today I decided to see if the radiator would hold water. This Jeepster has been sitting in a shop for 40 years and when I got it both radiator hoses were off, why I do not know. Anyway after looking inside the radiator I notice a mud dauber nest inside the cap opening. After further checking, I found several mud dauber nests and a bunch of cloth/fabric material that was covering the entire top cavity of the radiator. I think I got it all out, but I thought I should flush it out just to be sure. It doesn't look like anything got into the the water pump opening or the thermostat opening. I was thinking of removing both hoses and run a garden hose in the bottom opening and back flush the entire radiator. Does this make sense or is there a better way? Thanks.
Old Fashioned Radiator Shop
Finding the right shop is the key to this. Our late friend Ira had a shop tell him the radiator on his M38A1 was too far gone to fix and he ended up buying a new radiator for about $600.
But, bring the curious former Marine he was, he took his rifle bore scope and looked into the radiator some time later. It looked clean to him, so he took it to an "ole' boy" back in the woods to have him look it over.
It turned out he had a hairline crack on the outlet pipe. The radiator flow tested OK and not a bubble at 30 PSI pressure test once the crack was fixed.
Good luck, and show us some pictures. We consider Jeepsters the Unicorns of the Jeep world - rare and marvelous critters indeed!