I need to find a small, cheap, simple means of heating my little primer gray '36 Chevy pickup. I have only begun to look at aftermarket units and they are mostly too large and/or expensive. I have never been in the market for one so I haven't been looking under dashes in junkyards yet. Any help?
Mid 50's GM products had under seat heating. Round heater core and blower motor all mounted up under the seats.
early 70s ford pick up heaters will cut down pretty easily,they are still ugly, but they have a cheap heater core, and ducts for defrosters. Big old farm trucks have really cool (and attractive) little heaters, also usually with defroster ducts, but you may have to do a little rigging to replace the core. If it shows I would go the big truck route.
The old Ford Courier (Mazda) pickups from the '70s had a very compact little heater that could be adapted to just about anything, as do some of the older postal service Jeeps. As others have mentioned, the universal aftermarket heaters made from the '30s to early '50s are cheap and plentiful. I have a '30s vintage Hot Wave brand heater in my '38 Ford pickup that works great. If you need to replace the core in one of these old heaters (usually they are good), just find something roughly the same dimensions that will fit in the case and has the outlets in the right place. The NAPA guy, eBay, or junkyard scrounging will find you a 12V motor to replace the 6V, or you can use a voltage reducer to drop it to 6V if the old blower motor is good. I adapted a blower motor from a late '60s or early '70s Dodge pickup to my heater.
they make little 12v electric heaters and sell em at walmart.. one could mount a few under the seat.. alot easier to run some wires then it would be to run hoses and other doo-dads then just put a little switch to turn em on in the dash or where ever you'd like.
I just picked up a Southwind heater from Espay for about $10- keep your eye out and you'll probably find one too. Now to get some modern innerds (they were originally run with fuel)!
I'm using a rear seat heater from a Toyota Land Cruiser. It's got it's own fan and mounting bracket tabs. Has 2 1/2" lines to hook hoses to. Only around 12" round shaped. Fits flat on my inside firewall of my Austin sedan. $60 at a swap meet. Here's a picture at Fleabay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/FJ40...ptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories
RichG............ I like the idea with a different type of fan than a standard squirrelcage Computor fans might be a touch small and i am not sure but i think they would need a 110 converter.........along the same line, a lot of Hot tubs come with a slim line fan 3 to 4 inches in a square frame that could be adapted easily but once again I believe they would need a 110 converter.
Don't know what your budget is but I'd look into getting an original type gasoline heater. There's a guy in Canada who sells completely restored, guaranteed functional units by South Wind. They cost about $200 - $250, depending on the model. There were over three million units made by South Wind for cars of the '30s, '40s and '50s. Look for him under southwindheater.com. I'm deciding if I want to put one of these in my '62 Rampside pickup and whether I want to to deal with a rheostat to change from 6 volt to 12. I'll probably do it.
Here ya go... http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250752483401&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT Your welcome.
I bought one years ago from mr40sfatstuff for my 64. Very basic, core and fan, pretty cheap at the time. Just installed it recently, haven't wired the fan, so it's useless. I was looking at them from Jeep sites recently, much bigger, with ducting available to hook to defrost. Probably the way I'd go now if I were to start over. Devin
computer fans are 12 volt, a little lite on the cfm but perfectly quiet and more than adequate for a small cabin.
I don't know what you define as cheap but you might look into heaters for boats they make some pretty compact ones. I used to buy from a company called Heatercraft that as I recall was near Spokane. Another that I recall was called Red Dot maybe near Seattle. I would expect you would be near or over $200 for the marine stuff.
I bought a small electric heater that plugs into the lighter a Harbor Freight for about 10.00, aint much but its all I need in Florida...
Yep, and they're also the fans that are used on electrical equipment enclosures and AC VFD drives... as far as CFM, you can get them up to 500 CFM! That should make your hula girl dance! http://www.mcmaster.com/#equipment-cooling-fans/=at7hgj
once you get over the 70-80 dollar mark you should be looking at the smaller spal fans. same size as computer fans but lots more flow. http://www.spalusa.com/store/main.aspx?p=CategoryBody&c=FAMO&pg=1
I used to run the same 4" fans for the opposite reason. (Cooling car audio amps.) They don't draw much from the electrical system. They are whisper quite. And if you run 2 or 3 of the 4 inchers you get more than enough air flow to heat a pick-up cab. Pick up a cheap heater core and fab a sheet metal manifold. BAM! Under a hundred bucks.
Summit has a self contained heater - Mojave Flex a lite 640 for $200. All brand new stuff, ready to go. Kinda pricey, but it looks to be able to heat a vehicle (12,000 BTU). I tried a little electric one a long time ago, forget it! In order to make that kind of heat, you would need 3 alternators!
I'm going to put an old under dash heater in my coupe. I already have one but there's tons on epay. Don't bother with the cigarette lighter jobs, you could fart and warm the cab up faster.
here is a nice little unit . http://www.southernrods.com/categories/heating-and-cooling/heaters/products/product-860.html
'46/'47 Ford trucks have a nice little heater that works great and looks perfect..........other years might have that same heater.
Make your own.I just finished one for my model a .I took 1/2"copper line and wrapped it around a 4" pipe to make the coil and used a motorcycle fan.Whole heater is only 6"x6"x6".
we used one of these in my kids jetta as an aux window defroster (it has a leaky sun roof so it fogs pretty bad sometimes) i wired it directly to the batt.
those were also used in 49 ford cars, the problem with those is that they are 15" deep, the motor and fan hang way out. search for "make your momma happy" and see my heater tech using one of em for a core.
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