I'm looking for an electric car heater for my model a coupe so i don't have to run the ugly heater hoses on the motor or through the firewall. I've been running a car with no heat for some time now (my 59 caddy still doesn't have a heater in it yet) and it's gettin pretty old...I know that there's a place out there making some right now...they're louvered on the front if i remember right...I remember seeing it in Street Rodder a couple of years back...any thoughts fellas? Or if you can think of a car that came with a small 12volt heater with no liquid, that might be of interest too...
Not sure where I saw them, but they are out there. You won't be with the output. Use a small hotrod heater. It can be a very clean install if you route lines etc discreetly. One in my 31 pu was hard to tell it was there.
Gas-powered heaters were an option on some cars up until the mid-50's or so, and they might even still make aftermarket ones (although I kinda doubt it). Oh, and electric heaters really are weak...a month or so ago I put one of the gray metal box kinds in my car with an extension cord and left it on 1500 watts with the fan going for an hour to de-ice the inside of the windows. It worked, but when I went to shut it off, it hadn't warmed up the car even as much as 10 minutes of driving with the heater open would.
VW's used gas heaters up until they quit sellin'em in '79. It was an option, but even still they're not that hard to come by. -Jeff
Thanks for the advice guys...I guess I thought that an electric might work cuz we're only talking about the small compartment of a model a coupe, and it's even smaller now, cuz it's chopped 4 inches and channeled 4 inches...I've seen those crappy little electric jobs at Walmart before...I didn't think one of these would do the trick...but i do remember seeing bigger ones before...guess i'll just keep hunting for now...thanx-
My brother had a '59 Triumph TR-3 with an electric heater in it. You might try some Britidh Sports car wreckers or parts houses like Moss Motors
Southern Rods that was doing an electric heater. http://161.58.79.191/cgi-bin/SoftCart.exe/cgi-bin/smpagegen.exe?U+scstore+nzwn9014ff6a5d6a+-p+-c+scstore.cfg+840HE
you can try southern rods at www.southernrods.com then click on heaters and air conditioning, be wary though, make sure you want it unless you don't mind paying a restocking fee if you need to return it. i purchased a set of sprint headers from them and discovered my front wheels wouldn't turn all the way with them mounted, so i returned them but they charged me a $55.00 restocking fee...they must not be a big business like speedway motors or one of the big guys, i have bought from speedway and returned items with no problem at all. good luck and let me know how the heater works, i want to get one too. mike
Thanks alot guys! I checked out the Southern Rods site and it might just be what I'm looking for.....
The gas heaters in VW's were an option and they are EXTREMLY dangerous. If you pull up, kill the car and dont shut the heater down about 5 or so minutes before, they can explode. All VW's us the heat off the engine to warm the car......and that really sucks! Look in JC Whitney, there called "Back Seat Heat".....It would be good enough for a coupe....