Old cast iron radiator parts

CoreyR

Hope this is the correct section for this. I purchased a house built in 1890 last year and it has very nice looking huge cast iron hot water radiators that I assume are original that I'm looking to refurbish because they heat the house incredibly well but some of them appear to be developing leaks at some joints and they have about 10 coats of
paint on them. It uses some type of tapered square headed bolts to hold the sections together and what appears to be some type of rubber oring/gasket between the sections. I'm hoping to find out if these parts can still be purchased new or if I have to get creative.

Steamhead

You might have to get gaskets made up specially for these rads, but it's definitely doable. Is this a Vapor system?

CoreyR

They are (were) connected to a hot water boiler.

Hard to see in the picture but the gasket mating surface between sections is concave and my thought was a fat oring rated for the temp it runs at with some RTV for good measure, assuming I can't find specific parts.

Jamie Hall

CoreyR said:

They are (were) connected to a hot water boiler.

Hard to see in the picture but the gasket mating surface between sections is concave and my thought was a fat oring rated for the temp it runs at with some RTV for good measure, assuming I can't find specific parts.

That will work just fine.

mattmia2

You can also buy round punches designed to cut round gaskets out of sheet gasket. Is the recess rounded or does it have square shoulders for something like a flange washer?

CoreyR

The recess is round, but wider than an o ring so it has room to squish