How To: Kustom heater for *cheap*

Yes folks, another tech build from The Monster. I was getting mighty cold in my daily, so I put together something original, and you can too!
Here we go!

First, I had two old heater housings, but nothing else. This first one is from a '47(?) Chevy. Some of these were spot welded together, but this one is screwed together and makes it easier to seperate this for later. As you can see I got this for 5 bucks at a swapmeet.




This housing is from a '40's(?) Ford truck. Also a 5 dollar buy.




With this pic, you can see what direction Im going to go with this custom housing. The reason for this combo is that one has defrost with two way valve, one doesnt. One can accept a square heater core where the other uses a round one. I already tried using a really good used round one, and it leaked.


Here is the part number of the heater core I bought new for $22.95 at Baxter Auto!


And heres what that gem looks like.


For you guys that have the Ford heater, this little heater core fits like a dream!


Ok, I begin to cut into the Ford heater housing to make room for the Chevy defrost section.





Theres more...

 

Now, I match up the defrost section to the box and trim and weld.










Thats lookin pretty cool! Next I punched a few divits into the foot shoot so that the two-way damper will stay open when its in the up position.


Now its time to create a harness for the heater core to nest into and not get bumped around. I came up with this simple structure fabbed up from all scrap metal, left over from previous projects.


With that foam tape edging, its a nice snug fit, but not too tight.


Now Ill turn my attention on making the backing plate and fan mounting structure. Here is the basic backing plate, making room for the heater core in/out tubes.


A real nice fit, Ill be securing it all together with small sheetmetal screws rather then welding it, for the ease of service in the future.


More to follow...

 

watching & subscribed!
any idea what the core is for?

 

Next determine how deep of a fan shroud youll need by measuring your fan sidewall height and the clearances. Always be checking clearances throughout the build, making sure the fan blades wont rub on in/out pipes or the heater core itself.


After measuring my fan, I fabbed in my fan supports. BTW, Im using a single speed radiator fan motor that I got at a junkyard for a few dollars. The blade Im using is a small 4 blade fan from the 47 Chevy unit. It came with the housing. FREEBIE!


Now I mount the fan and make sure all clearances are still okay.


Put the two pieces together and bolt them together to make sure everything clears. Remember to leave a little bit extra room for fan flex at high RPM.


Next I fab up some support for the firewall mount. Youll note later I had to weld on some lugnuts at the base of these studs for clearance. The butt of the fan motor was hitting the firewall, so that was my quick fix!


Then make a cardboard template to use to mark your holes on the firewall/floorboard.


Once youre all done with that, paint it!! I chose a hammerrite/hammertone paint by rustoleum. You can also see that I screwed in a block off plate on my fan shroud where the heater core tubes had to pass through. Once I tried the fan, too much air was escaping, so this was the fix.




And with this pic you can see I extended the defrost/foot heat arm. This is so I can activate it easily while driving the car. Ill be putting a skull knob on it later once its painted.


And of course I couldnt leave it at that. I HAD to pinstripe it! haha!


Thats it for the heater box tech. Hope this helps someone! Oh also, Ill share another thing I did to help with draining your radiator.....

 

Awesome! I will need this for my new ride!

 

I HATE dumping my radiator just to have the petcock get all wobbly and spill coolant all over my coresupport, front susension and floor of my garage. No matter what I did, I found my self cleaning up colant each time I had to drain it for one reason or another. So... I got smart!
Heres what I bought.


Heres what it looks like mounted. I cut away a bit of my valance to make access easier. Also, just as a safety extra, I have a short piece of hose clamped to the exit end. I have a bolt clamped into the hose. So just incase the valve fails, It wont just shoot out all my coolant.


And when draining, remove the safety hose and clamp on a length of hose, and BAM! I didnt leak or spill a drop!


Also, heres a pic of the heater installed in the car. Have Fun!!

 

Simple answer is no. However...
I had to do a ton of homework here on this one. Since I knew they wouldnt carry a replacement for the old Ford one, I had to find one that had the dementions and in/out tube placement I could work with.
I found that Auto Zone website lets you look at Tons of pics without requiring to type in a vehicle.
Most all heater cores are made through 'Spectra Premium'
And I lied, it only cost me $22.95!
I suggest you check out auto zones website, have your measurements of your heater box and start matching up the ones you think might work. There were many that would of worked, but this one was the cheapest. I bought it at Baxters and they matched the price. They had the same one for 42.95!

 

Nice job!

 

Way cool Thanx for all the info.

 

Looks like a 70's Camaro/Firebird

 

Any good parts store can cross-reference that part number. The AutoZone and O'Reilly websites can as well.
Love the finished product!

 

Thats brilliant, nice fab work and a great looking heater, im sure you will inspire a ton of clones.

 

Very Nice, man!

 

Thats awesome!!!

 

great tech... love to see someone use whats on hand and does the job

 

Coolest heater ever!

 

Very cool.. Great job....

 

Nice job. Just one question though...
How well does it blow air?
I have the same Chevy set up in my truck, but with the stock round heater core. I replaced the old 6 volt motor with a new 12 volt one. It didn't blow much but it did make a lot of noise with the flat bladed fan. I replaced the fan with a cage style ( hamster wheel) fan, and it blew a little more air. Not very much better, but it was quieter.


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this is genius!

 

dig it

 

Awesome Tech.... great job.

 

Neato!!! Good work!

 

cool trick! Thanks for sharing, love the paint.

Brent

 

Ford pickups http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/detail/GT00/94582.oap?ck=Search_94582_-1_3703&keyword=94582

Click on compatibility and it will give you a list.

 

Hey thanks for the feed back guys! I really appreciate it.

This fan does an outstanding job! I just tried it out last night. I went around the block a few times and had to roll down the window a bit, no joke!! I came back to the house and had my brother jump in to do a taco run with me so we could check out the heater. We both agreed that this has to be the best heater of any of our old cars. He has a 60's Scout, a 62 Ranchero, and we both have c-10 full size chevy trucks. None of them blast out so much heat that you either need to turn it off or roll down the window!

Also, this is only a single speed fan motor. We agreed that if I had a faster second fan speed, we'd both need to jump out of the car, do a dumby roll and let the car ghost ride down the road cause it'd be too damn hot!!! hahaah!

With all the heater doors shut, and the foot shooter selected, its a nice blast that hits me on the shoes. Im not sure how fast the defroster works cause it wasnt fogged up last night. But if I open any door on the front of this thing, the heat in the cab soars!! When my brother opened the lower door to shoot heat on his shoes, he had to close the door to 1/4 way open cause it was so hot! Kind of hard to believe really. Even when the doors are closed that hot air is getting blown against the backs of the doors and its kind of like a little oven, so you still get heat.

Pretty rad and Im super stoked to have a heater in the car finally. Its only been 3 years!! haha!!

 

Very cool thanks for posting

 

Mr48Chev is right! I researched Baxters, Autozone, Orieleys, Knechts, Thriftys and Napa. I also checked into Summit, LMC and others. Autozone had the best price, but they didnt have it in stock. Baxters did and they price matched it. Way cool!!

 

freakin' excellent.... i love the result.

 

Looks easy enough, I like that idea!

 

Yea, it was realitively easy! Im sure theres lots of other heaters that could be joined too and look good!