Projects 53 Chevy Bel Air "Cleetus" mild custom daily driver

So I'd been thinking that my resourcefully rehabbed original heater box may take awhile to get the inside hot. Especially since I will not be adding any vents....just be defrost and floor as original. Thinking I may add something like this also tied into the heater core hoses under the passenger seat to heat the rear of the car while helping bring overall cabin temperature up. From what I can tell it should fit fine. And I can run metal lines to it under the floor boards. So unless you get down on the floor it'll basically be invisible

 

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What about a aux heater like something from an fj40? Has a little fan and pushes air out 360°.

 

Any 50's Buick and most Pontiacs had under seat heaters with a fan. They only stuck up about 1" above the floor. If you have the room below the floor where you want to mount it.

 

Well turns out the dimensions listed online were a bit misleading.....but I still made it work. On the plus side I think I can make the inlet and outlet work without chopping them up. Had already planned on cutting holes in the box for them. Beater might be elevated to beater with a heater status tomorrow lol

 

Definitely not pretty. But after some rtv and duct tape it'll keep the giblets from freezing. I have two more heater boxes I can work on finding a better fitting heater core for. May have one of my three original cores recored

 

Judged hose length nicely. But didn't take into account how close the heater assembly mounted to top of dash. So before I plumb into the engine I need to pick up some 90° heater hose connectors and some hose clamps. I'll pick up some gas at same time so I can run it and try out the heater lol

 

And there's functioning heat. Still gotta get a proper fan switch. But it blows nice hot air. Tried to take a video but you can't see anything and all you can hear is my exhaust lol

 

Don't really like how the heater hose is just run through the firewall so I'm going to order a couple of these. Won't have to worry about vibration cutting a hose

 

https://youtube.com/shorts/Te3ZH0YXSAo?si=I9oAiAPDRq-fl98f
For now blower motor switch

 

Was there a temp range on the one you bought, when I'm looking around they don't seem like they go hot enough.

Edit: NM looks like the one you got claims a higher temp.

 

Just in the nick of time! Heater weather is due in short order!

 

Now I just need to get around to swapping in my new flex plate so it reliably starts lol

 

Got the new flex plate on....just to find the gear on the starter was chewed up bad too lol. Gonna order a gm style gear reduction starter and wash my hands of O'Reilly starters on this thing lol. Managed to snap a couple in progress pics of the flex plate replacement with engine and transmission in place. Not many. It was cold and dark and I was in a hurry lol

 

Still haven't received my new starter. Got a notification yesterday right before it was supposed to be out for delivery saying "package undeliverable and returned to sender due to damage. If you don't receive a replacement by November 24 let us know". Basically saying no idea when I'll get the replacement lol. But I took the gear reduction starter I initially tried and threw it back on with the new flex plate. While that starter does have a few issues it does start the car and does so without grinding. Between that and having the O'Reilly manager tell me and my boss Thursday that O'Reilly was currently having issues with supplier part quality on a large scale I took the new starter id bought from O'Reilly and just returned it for a refund. I think from now on I'll just stick to the gear reduction starters. Was my go-to before but this engine came with a new regular starter when I bought it a few years ago so I was just running that. But in any event the old car is back to reliably starting again lol. If the starter I ordered ever shows up and turns out to be a decent starter I'll order one for the 54 too

 

I’ve got a great starter and generator guy here in lees summit if you decided to just have yours rebuilt.

 

Does he do later 90s gm gear reduction starters? Might have the used one currently on the car rebuilt once the new one comes in

 

So originally I planned on eventually buying a replacement glove box insert and modifying it to clear my cobbled heater. Today I got to thinking. I have random pieces of sheet metal, good tinsnips, a cheap welder, and plenty of thick black vinyl. I think I'm going to make a cardboard template and weld one up and line with said black vinyl. Be no cash outlay aside from the glue. And would definitely be more durable than the pressed cardboard replacements