Am replacing many hoses on my 86 and loosened lower fat rad hoses from under body transmission cooler pipe.
Jammed a screwdriver in to loosen hoses a pried a bit till coolant flowed freely.

Decided to pull tran cooler for a cleanup and spritz of black paint. To my horror the end flanges were mangled a bit and bent...and then I realized I was the idiot that did the damage!

At home I realuzed that whole damn pipe is copper!! Must be $100 by weight at todays prices. But makes sense for thermal transfer. Luckily I could gently caress the end planges back to proper shape.

Need to remind myself "Gently laddy" when I am tearing things apart!!

 

I'm reminded of the saying, particularly applicable to working elderly trim and plastics, " Snug is tight and tight is broken"

Cheers
DD

 

UGH. I get it. I did something worse. My LT!. Removing water pump. I thought I had all the bolts out or loose in the pump. would not part past about an inch. I got out a pry bar. Revealed one bolt still hanging on. alas, it busted the pump drive off the cam...

Bit time job to fix.

Solved.I got lucky. Mezzierre electric water pump. Work so nice...

 

Been there, done that, although not with a trans cooler.
I Love working with copper as it's so easy to form. But as you discovered, it's easy to Deform too.

I also discovered the hard way, it work-hardens (like working the lid on a tin can until it breaks) and becomes brittle, breaking Very easily.
(';')

 

Circa 51, I was up to something dumb. Big fire cracker. Serious damage to my right hand. Only the skill of an army surgeon fixed it 99 %. I did learn to do alot with my left hand. As drive my three on the floor 37 Ford.

Nice nurse guided us through therapy. Sad, outta my league fun with finger exercises with her!!!

Crafts Made a small box. Applied modeling clay to the top. Then nailed on a thin copper sheet. Worked in a design. Much later my artistic daughter laid claim to it!!!!
How, I dunno, I gave it to my Mom....

Did some leather tooling. Still have a belt. Fit, no way. I was skinny then... Solid silver buckle and tip!!!!!