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

 

Cantankerous cold start to thaw it out lol

 

And thanks to a fellow hamb'r my wife and my car match lol

 

So thinking ahead to when I get my replacement starter eventually. I've never had so much trouble with an sbc starter in decades of playing with Chevy's. So with the new flex plate currently on it and the eventual new starter is that doesn't fix it I may just hunt a four speed. And how would that fix it you might ask? The 57 283 I have came with a matching bell housing and flywheel along with all the tins. Also have a new Wilson starter I bought four years ago when I was still trying to get the 283 running. So if I go four speed I can take the block mount starter completely out of the equation. On top of the fact the car would end up with the correct number of pedals lol. Already have a hydraulic throw out bearing

 

So Amazon starter came in. Last few weeks I had been hearing from certain O'Reilly managers that part supply quality control had been giving them fits recently. And considering I've never had trouble with getting a starter to work properly on an sbc till my first starter died on this engine a couple months ago I'm inclined to believe it. And after throwing the Amazon starter on and having it spin the engine baby smooth I'm taking it as fact. No clue how long it'll hold up but at least right now it works correctly. And for what one of the O'Reilly starters cost I can buy three of these. So I'm counting it as a win lol

 

Finally got around to drilling one of the caps on the lakes pipes. Holes aren't symmetrical because I actually measured them out. For some reason I get cuts and drilling straighter when I just eyeball it lol. Gotta get some gas and start it up to see how it sounds. While it looks like a restriction the combined hole measurement is more than it has to breath before when I just had it partially open

 

So here's a new one for me. This is with zero shims. And assuming the rest of the starters I tried were the same way. About a quarter inch of clearance instead of the recommended thousandths. Pulled the inside bolt out and rotated starter a bit with outter bolt cranked. Started baby smooth. May elongate one or both of the mounting holes to get it to properly fit. At least till I get to a junkyard and get a factory starter

 

And after posting this I tried angle shimming like @squirrel said in a 13 year old thread. Helped slightly but still grind. Might just elongate the holes. Not sure how effective grinding the nose would be

 

That's off by a crazy amount...like the holes in the block are in the wrong place.

Very strange.

 

What I would have thought too if if the initial combo hadn't worked great for two years since I've had it. And worked well a couple years in the firetruck it was in. I tried prying on the flex plate like suggested in same thread to check for crank slip but zero movement. Tempted to go to the city and hit picknpull for a factory starter lol

 

And did more googling. Apparently from like 1973 to 1979 like one in four or five sbc blocks had the starter holes drilled wrong due to a faulty jig. And this is a 1976 block. Not sure if both plants had the jig issue but this is a flint block. Anyway I'm thinking I may try grinding the circled area down on just the inside and shimming the outer one. And going to straight 3/8" bolts. Should allow me to roll it a combined near half inch. Still can't figure out why my initial starter and flex plate worked fine. Kinda funny that my smartass comment of saying screw it and swapping to a four speed using my 57 Chevy starter, flywheel and bell housing would have actually solved the issue lol

 

I would imagine he would have no trouble with that

 

So I'm thinking if grinding down the nose a bit fixes my issue I'll buy another one and grind it down to keep in the trunk. Roadside starter swaps are enough of a pain without having to worry about fitment. And this car will regularly go hours away from home. While I've found that I've got a decent support network of hamb guys within an hour of home it'd be nice not having to call on them for help if it's preventable lol