I had Tom's Radiator in Orange, California recore my radiator. 1994 IDI E350 Van. About three months ago.
Total bill ran almost $3K, but that also included removal and replacement of everything in the HVAC system. I just took possession of this old beast and all that 25 year old collection of hoses, belts, pumps, compressor, freon components, air conditioning system, everything; it was just a time bomb with a few minutes left on it. And, being a van, its a pain in the **** to work on, as in the van, half of the engine is in the doghouse in the passenger compartment. Once that radiator was out, the rest of the stuff was much easier to get to. So I did a pre-emptive run on parts changeout.
They did not say much about anything being hard-to-get, but it is a helluva big radiator. They commented on how it took two people to get it out and back into place. I got to tour his shop, and he had numerous tanks and torch-soldering setups with support gantries to hold the radiator at the proper angle so he could use heat and gravity to get the solder in the right place. I was quite happy to have professional help on this. By re-using the existing top and bottom of the radiator, he was able to insure an exact mechanical fit. He did a beautiful job on it. Here's hoping for another 20 years. I am putting the red DELO ELC coolant in it, as it has our SCA that our old 7.3 IDI needs to address the cavitation issues. I have read on other forums that there are often problems with coolant conductivity and aluminum... and I do know those nitrites and molybdates are conductive.
Coolant is claimed to hold the proper SCA for 750,000 miles... which to me is quite more than my anticipated lifetime.
Boy, you are sure out in the middle of nowhere! I was using Google and Yelp to see what you had available nearby, as you need a shop which is prepared to handle something like this. Many people *sell* stuff, and have it shipped to them, which you were doing the same with Rock Auto ( I've bought stuff through them, too, with excellent results ). In the middle of farm area, gotta be someone out there thats handy with torches, solder, and radiators.