" Money has no value, unless its spent " Indeed you have spent your money very well on some great cars, bravo on the element of hooking up the heat to the floor, you wont regret it !
That is one of the smartest things you could have done, you'll love it. My brother in law did the tubes and in-floor heat when he built his 40' x 60' shop, he has an electrically heated boiler that runs off peak and it's really cheap to heat. He did snow removal as a side gig for a few years and when he opened the commercial size garage doors running tractors and equipment in and out the inside shop temp would drop maybe a few degrees even in the dead of winter. Wish I would have had the foresight to do that when I built my own garage. Love this Vette project and the stories you're posting, thanks for taking us along!
You will not regret using heat this winter. Since adding a furnace to Dad's garage our winter productivity has doubled over working with space heaters. You seem to have no problem with motivation, but those cold winter days will be much easier to get started when you have a comfortable work temperature.
I might splurge and turn it up to 45 degrees. I can work in that. I will feel spoiled. I have parts to buy. I cant be out burning money sending dollars up the chimney. Now burning money sending it out the zoomies is a completely different thing.
My shop is 36x80. The heated area is 36x50 plus a 22x22 office area. The rest is cold storage. I have the pink Styrofoam underneath the concrete. Menards has the complete set ready to go. Its wall mounted. A friend works with high dollar mills. They are cooled with anti freeze. They cant take a chance on the freezing. He gave me several 30 gallon drums. My system will use one. If anyone needs some come get it. I have given away several already.
Look up the snow mobile ice drag racers. They go through tons of antifreeze in racing season, using it to cool the tread belt.
Guys think drag racing is crazy. I think going out to a frozen lake and getting run over by spiked tires cant be too much fun. It is something to see i have to say that. You need alot of schnops to stay warm spectating at one of those events.
The exhaust is now on. It wouldnt fit at first. Then i found pieces of flex pipe wedged into the passages leading to the bumper. I finally received the gas tank hold downs so all of that is in place. I fired it up to burp the cooling system. Im waiting on two seat cushions. The last two should be done this week. I hope to drive it this friday.
I dont know about the warm part. The previous owner disconnected the heater hoses. I will fix that next spring. Im running out of time to drive it so long johns a winter coat along with gloves with hand warmers are how its done around here.
Are you sure there's a problem with the heater core? Maybe the hoses were disconnected for a swap and never reattached...do you have the core out? I know you added new carpet so getting coolant on it through a leaky core would suck royally...just curious...
I dont have time to get into the heater core this fall. I most likely will just replace it do to the new carpet. I have had them go out on other cars over the years. Next spring i plan on doing alot more on the vette. I have already started a list. Heres a few things go fix. Heater Pinion seal Side trim Front harness Power wash Ignition covers Date coded generator Blower Nitro Wait a second scrap the last two. I have enough going on already. Some of the parts i already have. Its more of a time issue right now with winter coming.
If it has a heater water valve, that's another likely source of a leak. Hope you get to putt around in it at least a few times this fall....
I dont see a valve anywhere. The water pump and intake have pipe plugs. The fire wall has bare tubes coming out. Over the winter i plan on doing alot of research on this car. Im really out of comfortable mopar zone. I dont know whats correct and whats incorrect. I have the judging book and other sources of info. The primary goal of getting it road worthy again has been achieved. Next year it will be all about appearance and originality. The attention will soon shift from the vette to the Chevelle then to the nitro coupe.
aw come on man, put the last 2 back in... stock corvettes are boring...... just kidding, your car, your plan.... have fun
I believe the valve may be in the heater box, spliced in the line. Like the 56 Chev cars were. The joiner hose is a source for leaks as well, in those cars.
Is the valve there to turn off the hot water in the summer? My 40 Dodge truck had a set up like that.
The other chevys with deluxe heater had a TEMP control, it was thermostatic. with a borduon tube. Just like lots of other cars in the 50s. I dont know if the vette has that, does it have a TEMP lever?
Quick search shows a cable operated valve inside car, outside of box. Replacement seals are available to repair the valve. Looks like a casting, not drawn metal as body of valve. (From Zip's catalog)
The Jalopy Journal
