Yes I agree time is money, unfortunately for me it will take me more that a day to do this by myself and that keeps me from work I have to do elsewhere. Self employment is a pain sometimes! Anyway I'm pretty sure about the rad, when you open up the cap you can see visible scale around the inside edges.

 

are you certain the rad is blocked enough to cause the overheating? did you try to flush/clean it yourself?

i dont understand why people just mindlessly pay huge sums of money to replace parts they 'think' might be the problem.
diagnose the situation, and find the actual problem before you spend $800 on a guess.

 

If the radiator isn't leaking, I would try flushing it first. You stated that you were going to get that done, but I couldn't tell if you went through with it or not. You can pick up a bottle of radiator flush at any automotive or retail store such as Wal-Mart and do the job yourself. Put in new coolant after flushing the system. Unless the inside of the radiator is so plugged up that it can't be cleaned with a do-it-yourself flush kit, you should be able to get it cleaned out. The whole job should take around two hours. A good garage or radiator shop will also be able do flush the radiator without taking it out if you don't want to do the job yourself. Just keep an eye on your coolant level afterwards because if the radiator was getting badly corroded, flushing it out can create some leaks.

 

I can empathize, as I live alone in the middle of the sticks in Oklahoma and only have my car running at the moment. I would think that you could set aside time on a weekend to pull the radiator and flush the system. After all, if you're taking it to the dealer, are they giving you a loaner? Were you aware that you could flush your system and even run straight water, provided the distance and time driven are kept short?