Thread: Walker Radiators - Sad News

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Saw this posted on FB today - sad to see them going away.
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Walker.jpg

Sad indeed. A true legend in terms of customer service and personal touches in custom radiators for hot rods.

That sure came out of the blue, any reason given?

I had some guys in from a local swapmeet who came to buy some parts from my "liquidation sale" and they told me this, probably about an hour before the internet blew up with copies of that letter. I was in disbelief too. But the fans of our segment of the hobby are heavily tilted toward folks who are "getting along in years" and just can't push the wagon anymore. Health, or a younger generation losing interest in "the family business", or any one of many more reasons and these once thriving businesses no longer have their leader. Sad realities.......

Originally Posted by Bob Parmenter

I had some guys in from a local swapmeet who came to buy some parts from my "liquidation sale" and they told me this, probably about an hour before the internet blew up with copies of that letter. I was in disbelief too. But the fans of our segment of the hobby are heavily tilted toward folks who are "getting along in years" and just can't push the wagon anymore. Health, or a younger generation losing interest in "the family business", or any one of many more reasons and these once thriving businesses no longer have their leader. Sad realities.......

The "woke" generation is sound asleep.

The market is pretty much saturated with aluminum radiators now, too. As far as I know, Walker stayed with copper/brass units. I'm not saying that copper radiators are bad, but those materials have continued to increase in price. It was probably getting very hard to compete. Everybody and his brother is selling aluminum radiators, many from China or made from Chinese parts.

Then there is advertising, either paid for or by accident. For as long as I can remember, Walker was the big dog in street rod radiators and they made high quality parts, but you almost never see an article or build thread now that uses a copper radiator, unless it's a restoration. Walker provided a lot of radiators for magazine builds and many feature cars had Walker radiators, but now it's all about aluminum. Every TV show has a line like "We picked up this great aluminum radiator and fan setup from fill in the blank and it's going to do a great job of cooling our project", so the Walker name just isn't as well known to the general public as it once was.

Still sad, though. I expect many of the other companies that helped make the street rod industry what it is will follow Walker in the coming years. I'm 62 and most of the folks I know that are street rodders are older than me.

That sad news,they really should have changed with the trends to keep alive. The reality is a radiator from the costs a little over $1000 for a 53 Chevy pickup and and aluminum radiator is under $200. It's hard to compete with that much of a price difference.

Always sad to see a longtime American business close its doors. But I agree with 53Chevy; you have to be competitive in the global market. The average hot rodder is a blue collar guy on a budget and will buy the less expensive product to get his project on the road.

Very sad indeed but seems to be a trend with any old time radiator shop let alone a big manufacturer. My favorite local radiator shop closed down 8 years ago and I bought my Walker radiators from him because he had the best prices. I've been using aluminum tanked radiators since. Price has been a big factor in that. The last Walker I priced was for my brother's 53 Ford F350 and the cost was $1230 shipped. He got an aluminum one for $320 shipped.

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walker priced themselves out of the market years ago . last one i used was 2002 and even then i would have used aluminum if possible . i have used afco ever since .