Heater Rebuild Help

Trying to restore heater to put in Willie. First the local guy said he can't mess with the leaking core. So I found a new core listed by O'Riley. It fits but the brackets that holds it in place internally won't fit over the ends. See pics below. So first is there anyone I can ship the original core to fix the leak. Next, in the pic are the old rubberish seals that go where the flap is to seal air flow. They're brittle and falling apart. Any ideas what to get? It's more dense than the stuff at Home Depot for windows plus it needs to handle the heat. It needs to have some give to seal so cork won't work either. Any places that provide some for restoring?

Here is the new one listed for these jeeps. If I force it down the it spreads and screw holes won't line up.

See how original it fits.

This is the seal material for air sealing depending which way the air flap is.

 

Worked in a radiator shop as a 19yo; well, I was a driver. But the inside guys did heater cores all the time. Done same as a radiator- ditch the old core and solder a new one in between the top and bottom tanks. But with the aftermarket stuff available, most shops have probably dropped the ability to do it.

 

My heater core started leaking last year. I took it to Weber Radiator, a shop here in Yakima, WA. They did a great job repairing it. Don't know why you couldn't send it to them if you can not find another source.

 

It looks to me like it might be simple to re-shape the mounting bracket and make it work. But hard to see from a photo.

I have resoldered more than one leaky heater core. Depends if the leak is reasonably accessible, and if the copper is heavy enough - which it was in the older cores. A competent radiator shop ought be able to fix or recore it.

 

You might try Neoprene Foam for your sealing needs. You can find it here in 3/32" and 1/4" thickness at the local Art and craft store. If you have a Michael's near by they would have it.

 

I don't remember my heater having that internal bracket but easiest fix might be to go to home Depot and get a piece of steel strap and just make a new internal bracket. Should be real easy to make using a hammer. That thin stuff is really easy to make or bend. And you probably could make the curved corners of the bracket a hard 90 degree or take try c clamping a pvc pipe to the edge of a table and pull the metal down over the pvc and you could probably make the corner curved