Heat/defrost for a Hot Rod

I want to put heat and defrost in the '48 since I hate the cold and would like to be able to see out the windows in the morning when I get off work. What kits out there does everyone else use? Any recomendations on what to get?

 

I used a Vintage Air heat/defrost unit in my '37 and loved it. It worked great in Michign winter weather.

 

I'll second that. Vintage Air makes two different heat/defrost units and they are pretty reasonable. I have some offroad guys here buy them and use them in early Bronco's. They absolutly love them, and tell me they are the best performing heaters they have found!

I can even get you a HAMB deal on one if needed.

 

I posted this sme question a few months ago and got the vintage air response. My son Fedsled put a ford courior heater ***y in My 49 Merc and IT WORKS KICK ***. Has heater and defrosters. The controls are all hooked to the unit and screwed under the dash. The unit sets in where the glove box lived. The cool thing its all one small unit.The defroster tubes were also taken and hooked right up. Think He paid like 20.00 at pull a part. Check it out Ford Courior pickup-- I believe an 80 ish. Feder

 

Vintage Air, although there are others on the market that do it right to.

 

I just scored a box heater ***embly from a METRO mail truck out of a local yard for $20. Its about the size of a toaster. It will look real good with some stripes, I plan to louver the intake panel on the firewall and holesaw some defrost duct hole on the output side.

swdobbs....

 

What kind of deal do you get. If I remember right they are around $200 to begin with.


I thought of pulling something out of an older car but all the stuff I would need to pull stuff from is crushed or rotted out and crushed. PA is not known for keeping that stuff around.

 

I am wondering if an air cond. evaporator(aluminum) would work as a heater core? I tried a trans cooler,last year, but there weren't enough rows to conduct heat away very well. I can't afford the vintage air stuff Spark**

 

I've been kicking around the same idea for my 46. I think defrosters would be a good idea and the heat would be nice too. The stock heater box itself is funky looking but I cleaned it up, painted it, replaced the knobs, etc. and it looks pretty decent.

The problem is that the motor does not work. I have no idea where I can find a motor for this thing at a resonable price, so I tried thinking about alternatives.

I was thinking that a DC current computer fan would easily fit into the space previously occupied by the old 6volt motor. They are availabe at RadioSlack. I don't need it to be variable speed as long as I have the ability to turn the fan on or off. I figured I could run it off a toggle swith or something. My only concern is the volume of air that this fan will displace.

It's something I need to try and see what happens.

 

See if you can find a plate fin heater core. It's what the OEM's use in some of the later model cars. Ususally the cores are only 3/4" thick and they pack capacity in like nobody's business.

Also, Flexalite makes a small hot rod heater as well. Unfortunately, I don't know how well they work.

 

I probably don't understand your question. If it is a 48,doesn't it already have the defrost ducts in it? If it doesn't because that was a option when it was new,it should be real easy to find the windshield/dash stuff from a 46-48 somebody is parting out.

For the heater itself,there should be plenty of heater cores out there you can pick up cheap from stuff like Mavericks or Novas that aren't too big but would still be big enough.

OR you could even check out the electric heaters JC Whitney sells that plug into your cigarette lighter for power. You could probably rig one of them up to blow heat up your windshield ducts and not have to cut any holes in your firewall,and you would even be able to throw it in the trunk during warm weather and forget about it. I know of one guy who says he has used one of these to provide heat in his Model A,and that it worked pretty good for him.

 

Are there any electrical motor rewind shops in your area? Why not look into taking it to one of them and getting it rebuilt as 12V negative ground. I have no doubt you could look around in a big junkyard and find a used motor that would probably fit with a little work,but you still have a used motor. It couldn't cost that much to have the original rewound,and it wouldn't have to be "engineered" to fit.

 

Squirrel-cage type fans are the most efficent for moving large volumes of air in a limited amount of space FYI. Those little metal dash fans,have a retro look to them.and perhaps could be used to de-fog windows,though. SparkX

 

Why didn't I think of that?

I guess I need to make things too difficult for myself!

 

50615-VUH Compact heater and defrost $199.00 list, $169 HAMB discounted
50616-VUZ Bi-level heater w/defrost is $249.00 list, $217.00 HAMB discounted

 

Thanks for posting that info.

 

"All the stock stuff is missing. I want something that will fit up behind the dash and can't be seen or see as little as possible. A buddy of mine owns a junkyard but the smallest I could get is out of a cavalier but they are a ***** to get out."

Ok,so is it a Ford? Mopar? GM? If it's a Ford or a Mopar,I MIGHT have the stuff you need on a parts car. I'm stripping a 48 Ford coupe,and I have a 47 Plymouth sedan parts car. If it's a GM,somebody else reading this might have it. Once you get the defrost ducts and granish moulsing if neccessary,you have it whipped. You can use almost any type of heater core,

 

i buy the small heaters from nite prowlers. 120.00$ they too are about the size of a toaster, take about 30 mins to install. i have one in my 51 merc works great and it is COLD here. also had one in my 32 pickup with a cab that small it would dry your eyeballs out..

 

Naw.. Squirrel-cage type fans are the most INefficent for moveing air. they are designed to be quiet. But like jalopy43 is suggesting it will be fine for an auto heater.. Just an FYI...Hope I didn't step on your toes jalopy.

 

I will be pming you. Thanks

 

Not to highjack the thread , but what about the floor heater offered? If you have a nice firewall, is this a good alternative? Or not? Any drawbacks?

????

 

Foor heater, who has that?

 

Vintage air makes it....

 

Just saw this one in a Parts Pro catalog I was throwing out. They had it for $149. May not be as nice as what V.A. sells- I've never seen one in person, but it's sorta cheap:
http://www.flex-a-lite.com/auto/html/mojave-heater.html

If you're really on the cheap, I'm going to replace the one that was in my truck. I don't know if it's any good, but I dumped a bunch of coolant on my face when I pulled it out, so I know it wasn't leaking (w/o pressure). If you're interested, I can try jumping a battery across it to see if the fan works. It's rusty and ugly, but it's yours for the shipping and the cost of a six pack if you want it. I need shelf space.

 

mack trucks from the 50s threw 90s maked a cool one can find it in the junckyards can bye all the inners at a mack dealer cheep.

looks good to

 

guys check this out.i built a 42 pickup,installed original heater box,fan was junk...i was in radio shack and they had little box fans 12volt.i took my heater out made brackets for the fan it works fine!!! the fan is for electronics and 'puters. $20.00 .........i put a 37 chevy heater in my buds 28 graham page that i built last winter heats his sedan great.last week it was in the 30s outside of cleveland i was cruisen the 42 nice and warm!!!!!!!!!they also sell LED lights in colors make nice turn indicators/high beam $2.00

 

Good idea!

 

hi, i am a new member. how can i get a hamb discount on the vintage air heater? can you email me back at sa**y5@hotmail.com, thank you in advance.

 

Your kidding, right?

First post and your looking for freebies and giveaways. Here is how you do it, pony up and become an Alliance Member. Do an intro and become a productive member of the HAMB.

Then, and only then, do you get your discount.