lostviking

Almost done I need to repair the band that clamps the two halves, and refinish the paint on the "Deluxe" badge and the defroster pull handle. But here is what it looks like. The studs that go through the motor clear, and so did the fan shaft, so I'm leaving them alone. I initially tried to rivet the door handles back on, but the nose on my rivet gun is too large and damaged the surfaces. I used screws, nuts and Loctite. Just need to fabricate the mounting adapter at the firewall, and get the large nuts that hold it in. Oh, and switch, h2o valve...minor stuff

I wonder which is better, mine says I'm a dirty old man. Tim

Oh, no screws...I'm soaking them in vinegar to get the rust off. Very minor amount and then I'm paint some Coroseal on them.

Last for today is the base and the body side with all the vents. The wife got home from work, so I'm done for the day. I had a day off You can see where the defroster part goes back on sticking out the side. Obviously that goes on after the body is reassembled. Even though I'm not hooking it up for now, I'm putting it back on so I don't lose anything.

I already put the fan shroud on in those pictures, but here's a better shot...and the fan must be placed so it doesn't hit top of bottom. This is a 6V motor I got from NAPA that was intended for a 56 Chevy. I don't know yet whether I need to cut the extra length off the shaft or the through screws that can be seen sticking out the rear. If not, I'm leaving them.

Last dim.

OK, now some pictures. At some point in the very beginning of my other thread, someone asked for dimensions.

I've finished refinishing all the various metal parts and giving them a coat of paint. I started reassembly this morning. After "shimming" the fan motor as straight at possible with some rubber washers, I added a bit of window calk at several points around the rear of the motor. I'm hoping that will act as a vibration damper and help to maintain the center line. I put the fan shrouds on and slipped the body part with the vent openings over the other parts. No pictures yet. I still need to repair the band of metal that acts as a sort of clamp for the two main body parts. Mine is broken at the sharp bend on one end near the threaded part. I'll try to silver solder it back together. This is a non-magnetic metal, so my options are a bit limited. If worst case become actual, I'll find a piece of similar channel and remake that part. Probably out of aluminum. More to follow.

Sorry, didn't know that type of question what verboten. Tim

Ed, I'm trying to get all the dimensions I need from you picture and measurements. I took one of the pictures you posted, and popped it into a CAD program, then scaled it based upon the dimension you gave for the top width. I'm getting all sorts of weird measurements, and I think it might be that the picture is not dead on. Could you post another shot of the part taken from directly over the part? Here's what I'm seeing, but I think there are shadows and artificial angles causing it. Once I have the image in my CAD program, I can rotate or scale it...so long as I have a known dimension to measure. Maybe if that is the only image you upload, you can keep it large. Thank you for your help. Tim P.S. Being slightly off 6.75 across the top is just because it get bleary when I zoom in to find and edge to measure.

Last rusty piece that needed to be cleaned up. The defroster vent from the side. Before and after. Still need to brush it off a bit before I primer. I also found some better pictures of the part I'm modeling above...I see I need another flange on the skinny end. I hope Young Ed can find his and give me some dimensions. Then we can all build one.

Thanks Ed. It's not a hard part to make, even at home. You just need accurate dimensions. I'm trying to recreate the fan motor mounting pad also Again, I have a picture in my manual, which is terrible and doesn't really show it, but since my heater is all apart right now it's easy to measure things. I have to make a guess at the thickness and material. Right now I'm 3D printing something that is actually a slightly different design. I think it's a better one, but I'll see when I get it done and try it. Tim

I use Solidworks at my job, so I'm working on a model for the firewall to heater adapter shown in the manual. I've only created a rough part without the correct dimensions. I don't have one. I will look at pictures and estimate as much as I can. I'll also measure angles on the firewall to help me get this at least close to the real part. If anyone has one, dimensions would be very helpful. Even just the thickness of the metal would be helpful. I'll use best practices to get it as close as I can. I'll post the drawing once I'm done for anyone to grab a copy. This is just kinda, sorta what it looks like. Edit: the hole spacing is actually from measuring my heater, so that's good.

Then measure between the output wire on the alternator and chassis.

It's simple. Measure between the positive terminal on the battery and the frame. It you see positive 12 volts, then it is negative ground.

I left the second half of the main body in the tank for 3 hours. Here it is in all it's glory. You can scroll up to see this exact view as a before. The black area's are where the rust was heaviest. Rust doesn't just magically disappear, it get "converted" by replating of the steel from the donor anodes. That looks black and can be a bit loose also. I go at that with a steel brush or wheel to remove as much as I can. The rest gets painted over. Here is one coat of the same primer. After 10 mins I'll sand any rough spots and recoat. The some of the same hammer finish paint. The air is pretty wet in San Diego today...gonna take a bit longer for the paint to be ready to sand.

Here is a first coat of the hammered finish paint. I think I like it. I didn't sand off a bit of left over paint where I circled, I should have but hey. I'll wait a couple days and sand it before I do another coat of paint. The inside I'll only do area's I might have missed the first time. Not bad for an amateur and rattle cans. I'll be more careful about sanding off paint that stays behind on the remaining parts.

OK, the medalion was just bent tabs, so that came off easy. The little door handles took a drill. No big. The inside of them is still rusty, so I'll put them in again. Remember when you use this process, that the electrons always take the shorted path, so if an area is "hidden" like the inside of the handles, you need to somehow make that open so there is a direct, or close line of sight. In my case, removing them was perfect. I dipped the first have of the main case again to get it really cleaned up. Only an hour, but after improving the connections of my setup, I was getting the full 2.5Amps I calculated. After some minor cleanup with a fiber circular painter removal disk (fibers are like wheel spokes), I painted it with self-etching primer. Under the medalion I was able to find the original paint, which is kind of gray hammered finish. I bought some of that also. Here is the primer drying in the sun. I need to wait 1 hour to top coat. I'll post a picture of that later. You can see from how smooth the primer is, that this process really gets the metal clean.

did you check ebay? Here's one for only $20 plus shipping. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-1948-Colorado-License-Plate-tag/193606987785?hash=item2d13e03009:g:-3EAAOSwOKpfJcE5 Another for $36...https://www.ebay.com/itm/vintage-1948-Colorado-silver-black-LICENSE-PLATE-unrestored/392741277075?hash=item5b71344d93:g:JL0AAOSwdHteZ9UX

The medallion and the hands/tabs on the various doors are riveted on, so I'm going to have to dremel them off before I do any painting. I'm also going to remove the screens. The just have some small tabs bent over them. Easy.

Here is the other half before I ran it through the bath. The pictures above had the same paint (some still there), but the electrolytic process takes you down to bare metal. I'll need to get some more VHT self-etching primer to protect the metal once I wash the parts post rust removal.

I'm starting a more appropriately titled thread to finish this. You can find it here:

I'm starting a new thread to show this restoration, rather than continue to use the "What Heater fits..." thread I started when I was trying to find a heater. I'm not going to move the content related to the restoration, but you can still see it here: The beginning of the project to restore the heater is there, I'm picking it back up with the rust removal of the rest of the box and associated parts. Today I did the first half of the main box. I again used a power supply and a bucket of water with Washing Soda it in. The details can be seen on the previous thread. Nothing new there. I am using the currently limiting resistor this time of course to avoid damaging my power supply, again. Due to other resistances in the circuit, namely I didn't bother to get a perfect connection from my negative wire to the metal, the current was about 1.36A. That's based upon there being a 6.82ish volt drop across my 5-Ohm resistor. Ohms law. I didn't take a picture of the metal before, but I do have the other side and the first part I did today. I left it in the bath for around 3 hours. There is a very minor amount of rust in some places. Most people might just use a spray over rust type paint, but I'm going to put it back in the bath tomorrow to finish the job. Looking at these pieces to take pictures, I see the worst part is the ones I've already done. I still wouldn't paint over this rust. A side benefit of the electrolytic rust removal, is that is take all the original paint off too

Any domestic 1975 or older...no smog.

Well, I fried the power supply finishing that second part. Way too much load, although it was supposed to be protected from excess current. I guess that circuit didn't work all that well. I've got schematics and troubleshooting information specific to this supply, so I'll fix it...if it's not the input transformer. If that is damaged, it's not worth the repair cost. The reason that second part hurt the supply is simply that is has a huge amount of surface area. The current increased due to this and just was too much for the poor old RS-4A to handle. Luckily I work in electronics, and also I have a back up power supply. I ordered a high wattage (100Watt) 5-Ohm resistor because it was fairly inexpensive and over kill. I only calculated that I needed about 39Watts. Anyway got it today and wired it up to the spare supply. I am limiting to just under 2 Amps, so the 4 Amp supply won't get hurt. I'll be back at it this weekend cleaning rust off my heater box.