Does anyone have any information on these type of automobile heaters?Going rate? how to date? I got this one in a trade and I know nothing about it. Found a few very poor ebay examples.
Here's a pic of mine, Picked it up 2 years ago off Ebay for $10 but the going rate seems to be a fair bit more these days. Here's another i got for $20 and put in the wife's 29A, It was pretty shit but polished up real nice.
Arvin made factory heaters too. I'd say late 30s to early 50s. I paid 15 bucks for one many years ago. When I was looking at it a piece of paper fell out that was wrapped around a tube. It said replace blower motor, repair 2 leaks...total 4.50. Here's mine Black wrinkle paint.
Most of the time you put a shut off valve in the hoses feeding the heater in the engine compartment like the one on the lower left. Turn the thumb screw in and it shuts off the flow. You can get them with hose connections too. Just cut the hose in the middle where it's convenient and clamp it in.
I'll have to keep an eye out for a nice one. My car came from the P.O. with a Vintage Air Heat/Defrost unit: works ok, but is kinda noisy and looks all wrong. I'd like something where I can get some heat without running the fan. It's usually not too cold here anyway.
I bought an Arvin that looks like the one in the top picture with a new core, but the chrome wasn't as nice for 50.00
That design is a nice mix of various '30s car grilles, and should look great on your '32. How does the motor/fan mount?
Until the '50s, few cars and fewer trucks had a heater/defroster installed at the factory. Even heaters rthat carried the car manufacturer's name were usually dealer installed. Arvin was one of the many brands of aftermarket accessory heaters sold through garages and auto parts stores.. I had a Hot Wave brand that was in the '38 Ford pickup that I sold last year. Got it cheap at Hershey 30 years ago. Most people bought one of the aftermarket brands rather than buying one from the dealer. Harrison was the division of GM that made heaters, radiators, and cooling system components for all GM vehicles, so they made the heaters that carried the Chevy/Pontiac/Olds/Buick/Cadillac/LaSalle/GMC names, but they also made a line of universal aftermarket heaters with the Harrison name. There must have been 50 different brands of aftermarket accessory heaters. Arvin was one of the brands seen most often.
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