On another positive note champion stepped up and sent me a new radiator. I ended up having to call them direct. What I got from my talks is that car I.d. and champion are in bed together. Either way they stepped up big. In fact I was supposed to send an email to champion direct stating my problem. I spaced it for a couple of days and by the time I remembered I had a new radiator in my living room. Very impressive turn around. If someone wants the first radiator in Oregon let me know.
Glad to see this was resolved.
I've been in the same boat. Ordered something, place it on the shelf, go to install it months(or years) later, and find out it was damaged before packaging and now I'm well past the return window.
In my situation, I purchased another from the same seller, swapped the parts, and returned the original one as defective for my money back. If doing this is right or wrong, I don't know, but the damage isn't my fault and I sure as hell am not eating the loss on it.