If you have a good radiator shop near you they should be able to build you a core to match the original
I'm going to use a ford pickup power steering cooler myself. Add a couple small, cheap 12v computer fans on it, 1 fan for low, 2 fans for high. I'm really curious to see if it works! If the old vw was water cooled I'd have tried it already on that!
Heating is easy- hot stuff through something that conducts well (metal), lots of surface area to radiate (fins), add air supply (12 volt computer fans work well and can be had for free ususally), go for it. And ball valves are simple and work. Keep away from electric heaters, the amount of heat you will get out = the amount of electrical power you put in , plus losses. They are good in theory, but use a lot of power.
^ that's the easiest, if the option of rebuild is not possible buy core that fits in the heater box. What's the car, could well be a good used one right here on the HAMB
Just bought a (late model) heater core from Rockauto, $86 when the local shops wanted $325. You do not state what kind of car, maybe they have one or maybe you can find one of similar size out of a late model that will fit.
What about a Falcon heater box? You can still get the heater core, and fan motor, easily. With the plenum attached (also available for sale), you can hook up your defogger hoses:
A quick search shows this core at $40.00. Seems reasonable to me and better than using underhood fumes for supply.
I am looking at options for my 41 ford truck as well. Vintage Air makes a heat only with servo motor controlled defrost ducts, come with switch panel and universal ducting. It is small so I can hide it, it is the one I like the best so far. Being a name brand unit the replacement cores should be available in the future.
I picked up the cheapest heater core I could find, built a bracket around it for mounting it, and attached a squirrel cage fan to the heater core bracket so the blower was pushing air through the core, and mounted in under the dash where I could connect hoses to it. Works great. Now if you really want to go cheap, wrap a piece of sheet metal around an exhaust manifold to form most of a tube. Cut a hole in the firewall, and duct that sheet metal tube through the hole in the firewall. If you leave the front of the open, or better yet, duct the front though the radiator surround. The air passing over that exhaust manifold will warm up shortly after the motor starts. As soon as your moving the air from in front of the radiator will pass through the tube and the heat off the exhaust manifold will warm the air. That warm air will pass through the ducting, through the firewall, and into the passenger compartment. Presto, free warm air that is forced into the passenger compartment. If you choose, you can even duct it to where ever you want the air to go once its inside the passenger compartment. You will want a method to block the air before it enters the passenger compartment for the summer though. Dodge trucks used this method in the 40s. They actually ducted the air off the manifold to under the bench seat which was mounted on a raised panel, the first ever seat warmers. Gene
I made my own out of 1/2" copper tubing (upper and lower headers), 1/4" copper tubes and aluminum roof flashing for fins. Works good. I like to make stuff. Gary
Not in the US, but this must be available over there, electric heater, nice and small, no water to plumb...
600 watts isn't a lot of heat and 50 amps it takes to produce it is a big load on the charging system. Phil
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