The dreaded cooling fan

[Hal Taylor <taylor@CritPath.Org>]

I admit it.  I sat, smuggly reading the "exploding cooling fan" thread
(six or eight months ago, was it?), never imagining that I too could be
a victim.

Well....you guessed it.  That's right, there I was, cruising along in
"Strega", my '86 spider veloce, enjoying the sound of the engine reving,
when all of a sudden, there was a loud bang under the hood.  Looking in
the rearview mirror, I saw little pieces of black and white plastic
flying away from the car.  I prayed that I had simply run over something
that made a loud noise, etc., but of course, if that had been the case,
I probably wouldn't be writing about it, right?  Right.

So here's the situation:

1.] Fan is entirely gone, shroud mostly gone.  No big deal, I checked
the usual catalogs:  replacement set, about $40.

2.] Two dents in the hood.  Cracked the paint, but I can live with
that.  The car's not pristine, anyway.

3.]  (The BIG one) Leaking radiator.  There must be a hole underneath
all those bent fins.  Looks like a war zone in there.

4.]  There is what looks like a sensor (diamond-shaped plate about an
inch long, with a small cylinder attached, connected to two wires*)
flapping around the engine compartment, next to the radiator, on the
passenger side.

As always,  I'm on a student budget, and this is my daily driver.  So,
is it possible to REPAIR the radiator, or does a whole (in the middle)
mean replacement, no matter what?  What should I expect to pay for a
used radiator?  What am I in for with the swap, which I'll be doing
myself?  Which years use the same radiator as my car (again, '86 spider
veloce (factory air, if it matters)).  And is that "thing-a-ma-jigie"
(*Fred) actually my coolant temperature sensor?  If so, (or even if not,
I guess) where is it supposed to live?  It seems kind of unhappy
floating around in there...

Thanks in advance for any help.

Hal Taylor
'86 spider veloce "Strega" (and she's acting like one...)
Venice, CA