Jack Bennett

I can’t read proposals, hooked to a question (how cheaper?) without shuddering in disbelief. Probably the cheapest way to convert any 6 volt car to 12 volts, and keep it the same 1952 Plymouth you yearned to own, is DON’T convert it. Antique and classic cars are valued because of their appeal as a link to a time passed, the connection to the time and technology in play when they were constructed, and, if that don’t ring your bell, try using them as a material link and stimulation to research history. I have three cars, and a tractor, which were built with a 6 volt system, and all except one (the 1923 DB Roadster is factory 12 volt) very happily coexist with 6 volt electrical systems. And, as their adopted parent and caregiver, I am super satisfied with the performance they have provided me in the past 4 years, and their previous owners over a period of 70 to 94 years. I have a daily driver, I have a classic, but very dependable pick up, and I have my HOBBY cars. I drive my daily driver because it has power steering, brakes, seats, a back up camera, heated/cooled seats, satellite radio, lane change warnings, and a thousand computers to go bad and justify paying for their very expensive replacement. My 1995 Ford F-250 is neither a sex symbol, a chick magnet, or will win a lot of ooooh’s and aaaaaaaaaah’s from pleased and agreeable onlookers. But, although it doesn’t have any power seats, windows or four wheel drive, it will pull my equipment trailer, carrying my 1947 Ford 8N tractor and 1941 Massey Ferguson brush hog, at 60 MPH, for a distance as far as I wish to travel. On the other hand, the uniqueness of my 1927 Willys Knight, my 1951 Plymouth Cambridge, my 1929 Fargo Express Panel and my 1947 Ford tractor is that they are representative of vehicles made in 1927, 1951, 1929 and 1947……..and it is beyond me as to why I would spend one hard earned cent to change that. Oh, my KIA Sportage, (aka daily driver) also has a satellite radio, LED lights and a solid state anti theft system……and I own the KIA for that reason, and because it is my daily driver, and depends on a 12 volt system, would never bastardize it by converting it to 6 volts. Nor will I ever bastardize my antique vehicles by trying to convert them to replace my daily driver.

I’m not seeing a heater of any sort. The stuff you are missing from the shelf on the passenger side of the engine compartment IS the heater. The mystery is why they bothered to run the hoses to a connecting point on the firewall. The small hose coming from the right front of the water pump is your heater hot water input hose. The hose running from the firewall to the rear of the head is the heater core output line. Were a single hose (bypass) connected between the water pump outlet, and the connector at the right rear of the head, it would accomplish the same thing as the terminal block on the firewall. Your heater electrical switches and air/vent control levers are mounted below the dash, halfway between the steering wheel and glove box. This area of the dash doesn’t show up in a photo, so knowing whether or not they are missing is not possible. Looking at the engine compartment photo, look at the hoses about half way between the water pump and firewall.That shelf is where your heater radiator and air control damper is mounted. The hole in the shelf, between the hoses is where the bracket for the heater radiator mounts. A major problem you will have is getting the fiber board connector which connects the heater body to the rectangular (should be a door there) hole in the firewall. These things did not hold up well with weather and age, and they fell apart early in the cars life. If you see one in fair condition, scarf it up real quick and hold it until you get the rest of the heater parts. My 1951 Plymouth Cambridge……dug from the grave and now flies among the clouds.