I recently got my first car, a 56 Pontiac Chieftain 870 four door. Floors have some rot, but seem pretty solid so I'm just going to patch up and seal it, kill the rust, etc etc. my question, has anyone ever worked on one with the underseat heater in it?
Welcome to the board , what kind of question did you have with the heater? I took all mine out if that counts.
Just really depends if your going to need to use it or not and how much to spend and keep the car all stock. You would still have the defroster heater at least.
I took mine out. I only used the car in warm weather. You may want to think about an underdash heater like a Chevy of the same years.
Well, I live in the northeast and I plan to drive her every day, regardless of weather. Is it worth it to save up and get it fixed in the future? Do they work good?
I would keep the under seat heater. I have one in my Buick and it keeps everyone nice and toasty in the winter.
And don't forget the big increase in coolant capacity! Takes longer to get hot in the summer, works great in the winter, and if you get a leak in the coolant system, it will take longer before you overheat. Other than the cost in parts for restoration, and the minimal complication it adds in more parts to leak or break, not much of a downside! Glad I left mine there in my '56 Star Chief if that means anything to you. Johnny
If it's unrestorable Vintage Air makes a universal heater only unit that mounts to the inside on the firewall and still keep the factory defrost heater. On mine the airtube from the blower to the heater was rusted out and rubber sleeves to connect it were dry rotted. Never checked to see if the motor even worked. I have it around somewhere I can test it if yours doesn't work. Mines just something I race in the summer so don't need the heater or the extra weight of it all.
Well, how exactly do I go about restoring it? I can't find any information about it. Should I go to a professional shop and have them do it? And if so, what kind of shop would that be...or would it be just any old mechanic?
Any radiator shop can leak check the cores themselves. I pulled mine out and will do an under dash heat/ac unit. I may have some parts if you need anything, a working blower for sure.... The rest I'd have to search for.
So should I wait before I put my new carpet in? Or will the new carpet affect the heater in any way? Also, how far from the heater should I cut the carpet? Just to make sure it won't start a fire or anything.
One of the major magazines did a complete resto on one a few years ago. All the way from removing mouse shit to complete rebuild functioning unit. Most of it was simple and very lowbuck, just time. And then they fit it into a car that didnt have one originally. You'd have a hell of a time starting a fire with a water filled heater core and a fuse protected fan motor.
Oh, so I do have a diagram of the heater core and assembly and all that! Completely over looked it.. definitely going to get this thing working again.
My car also has an underseat heater, and when I bought it last year it had the original carpeting, which went around the heater, maybe an inch or two away. I would think your car's carpet would have been similar, so yah, you don't want to lay new carpet over the heater. And no, I wouldn't just take the heater out. It's a cool option.
I hope you intend to put it away from like November 1 through April 1 or so, the road salt will destroy it in just a couple of years.
eh it;s no show car, its not rotted underneath but it's not perfect either. I plan to wash her down at least once a week underneath to get rid of as much salt and other crud as I can during the winter months.
It's crummy to have to deal with the road salt up there, but I would think if you clean and coat the underbody well enough, and wash it down as you said, it should last as well as a new car.
with the new way they apply calcium chloride , I would definately park it in the winter , its not like the old days were they applied the chloride to the salt and then put it on the road , now they spray it directly on the surface and its much more corrosive as its almost pure product . on my semi it ate the fuel tank straps in 2 years and I washed the truck once a week in the winter and it was parked outside ( which slows the chlorides reaction down )
i would hate to have to park my car in the winter if i lived where it snowed...im thinking i would coat my cars underbelly with roof patch tar or foundation water seal or truck bed liner before i didnt drive it..
Something to put on your "to do" list is to paint or undercoat the car before winter, road salt, etc. hits. Some rust inhibiting paint, such as POR 15 may be a good choice, check on here for comments as well as the good old Google. You will want to do a good job and get all of the areas where the salt/water/crud solution can hit and settle.
Cheaper and safer to run a $750 beater into the ground in the winters. I drove one in the winter years ago and even with undercoat the salt destroyed it - not so much right away, but even after I stopped driving it the salt kept eating it away and now it's a parts car.
Thank you all for the tips, I will DEF invest in even a por-15 coating. Something good, I feel like this winter will be savage and it's the first winter I'm driving. This car was only 1500 and I will have invested about 2000 dollars into it when it's completely finish. No big deal, it's a first car. But I will DEF take care of it, promise. I'll see about undercoating treatments before winter, or even see if someone has a lift I can use so I can Por-15 it myself. I was originally going to do that on my floors but I got cheap and just used rustoleum rust converter. Worked good and it mainly was just surface rust.
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