Hot Rods Do you have heat in your hot rod or custom?

I restored a few in my ebay days. I found if they don't have green crust on them they probably won't leak. never had a motor that would not work with a new wire. the cloth covering wears out and the shorts on the housing. here is some before pics and my Special High Intensity Testing setup to check for leaks.

excuse my sideways pics

 

No.

 

No heat, no AC, me no drive. My 48 Buick had Vintage Air in it but the top is not snapped to the frame on the sides. It sucked out heat or AC like a vacuum cleaner. That is one reason I got rid of it. I am not going to be uncomfortable in my cars.

 

No. There have been a few trips that I wished I had one.

 

Heat with defrost in everything around here. One of the higher priorities, right there with functioning wipers. I want to be able to see through the glass in the stuff I drive.

The 1st car (35 Dodge 2 door sedan) I put heat in only for defrosting the windshield. All the air out of that small heater went to the windshield, but I soon discovered it did a pretty nice job at warming the car up if I could cut down the air drafts from around the doors and holes in the firewall.

My coupe has great defrost, and pretty good heat (still too many cold air drafts) No ac in it, but it has fresh air vents and roll down windows that work pretty good. The car is tolerably warm from about 35 degrees and can be tolerably cool enough up to the upper 80s.

My 49 truck will roast you out in 15 minutes @ below 0 temps. There is a fresh new AC evaporator in that heater box, but the AC is not there yet. The truck has roll down windows and a fresh air vent like the coupe, but AC may arrive at some point.

One time we took the trip to the Hundrt Car Pileup in my son's car. It had no heat at all. The temps were only suppose to get into the 30s all day, and it was a 5 hour drive one way. The night before I bought a 10' roll of copper tubing and connected it to the motor's cooling system. Even with out a fan, it made the front seat at least a little better. There were 3 of us guys that made that trip, so someone sat in the back seat. About every hour we stopped and everyone rotated positions. We had a ball at the show, but we were all pretty happy to get back home to the warm house!

You guys understand a heater is nothing more then a small radiator connected to your cooling system with a fan mounted on it to blow air through it? The outside cover is simply there to pretty it up and direct the air. If you have slots in the panel in front of your windshield, and point the air up behind you dash, any air that hits the windshield will clear it, at least where the air hits it. The duct work simply directs the direction of the air flow. Then after the air bounces off the windshield and the roof, it will go back into the rest of the car. You can control the hot air with fan speed, and water flow control. Heat/defrost can be as simple as you want, or as complicated as some modern stuff is.

 

My Buddy Ron Moore and his wife Sharon used to drive their 29 Roadster with their snowmobile suits and helmets on in the winter.
My 48 was so drafty when I first had it in Texas that I froze My butt off in the winter heater and all driving to work from McGregor to Waco every day but 20 degrees in Waco equals 0 here as far as chill your bones goes.

Truth be if you are actually going to drive your hot rod or custom on serious road trips you want a heater that will work. I've froze my butt off the last week of June going over a pass in Colorado on the way to Texas and two weeks later woke up in Jackson Hole Wyoming with ice on a puddle on the side of the road in July. When the sun goes down in some of those areas the very nice day time temp drops to flat ass cold at night.

 

I found a nice old Arvin heater, put a modern Spal fan on it with a two speed switch from Ron Francis. I'm extremely happy with the amount of heat
it delivers, especially with my side curtains installed.

 

Transmission, or oil cooler.

Both are essentially heater cores.

 

Firewall and floorboard heat year round. Gloves and coat in winter.

 

Not in my Chevy phaeton however I've thought about an old art deco style heater / defroster and still run the cowl vent in summer. Insulation under cowl and floor make it comfortable.
The 46 Olds is getting it along with the full dyna-mat treatment, it gets cool here in winter and HOT in summer. Retaining the factory air, 1/4 and cowl vent.
No heater or vents in the 64 Fairlane, damn HOT even with 1/4 vents and windows open

 

One of the first things I fixed on my car was the heater which was leaking and by-passed. Where I am in Central Europe it can get a bit chilly during spring and fall, I see no reason why I should suffer. Thinking about fitting a valve to isolate it in summer though.

 

Good place to ask, show of hands, who has and what kind of coolant shutoff do you have for summer? Does it work on a long drive or will the core eventually heat up (seems to me it might)? I plan to use an early Ford F-series/Bronco valve and a cable inside, but if there's something better...

 

When I had to bypass the factory shutoff valve in my '53 Chevy due to it leaking, I used one for a late '60s/early '70s Mopar with a choke cable hooked to it.

 

I don't have one in the shoebox, but x2 in that there's been a few times I wished I did. Not many though, i don't drive it in the winter due to salty roads. However, some of the cool designs posted here make me tho may add one of those anyway! Some really cool looking designs.

 

I'm going to run 1/2" copper tubing inside the cowl of my el Camino. I'm going to put a gate valve on the engine side of the cowl. This way if it leaks, the water will go down the gutter and out.
When I open a floor vent the heat will come out.

I can't find that heat tubing with the tin foil wrapped around it.
Or maybe a mount an oil cooler under the dash or inside the cowl.

 

My kind of heat.

 

I have a heater in my '46 Woodie but don't have one in my Deuce roadster. For my roadster when the weather gets cold I have been using a heated vest sold by motorcycle shops. It plugs into a cigarette lighter socket and when I use it under a coat it really keeps me warm.

 

My best heater story. My buddy Matt is thermically challenged and cannot stand the cold. Why he continues to live in Iowa is anyone’s guess. I was riding shotgun in his survivor 32 5-window hot rod coming back from The Hunnert Car Pile Up in Morris Illinois. I don’t remember what year it was but it was the year that was bitterly cold. As we are driving west on I80 through the snow flurries, a gap in the body was blowing frigid air directly up his left pant leg. His complaining and whining about being cold went on for miles. I finally asked him if his engine had a supercharger on it. He looked at me like I was nuts since I knew it did not and since the coupe was hoodless you could clearly see the tri-power on the small block Chevy. Matt answered “no it does not” and I replied “then the whine I’ve been listening to for the last 50 miles must be you whining about the cold”. He laughed and although he was still freezing he did stop complaining. But as soon as he got home he started gathering parts to build a heater for the coupe. Matt bought another 32 5-window earlier this year and the first thing he did to it was install a heater.

 

I have great heat in my Ford. I had the dash out so it was easy to go through everything. I pressure tested the heater core and lubed up all the cables. I have driven the car as low as 3* out and was comfy.

 

Since I use my old cars for driving like they are meant to, yes I have heaters in them.

 

I have heat and ac in all my hotrods!
At 69 years old its hard to go with out!

 

If I had heat in my old Austin gasser the heater box would stick into the passenger compartment so far anyone sitting on the right seat would be banging their knees on it. The dash is only about 4" deep, so I've never seen a heater thin enough to fit it?
I'd like to put a heater in my '39 Chev coupe, and have plenty of room. But haven't found the right one yet.

 

I didn't have heat in my cars for the longest time. Then a few years ago I acquired cars with heat and a/c, and I have to tell you, it has made a significant difference in the ability to use the cars. I log a lot of miles with them, which is mainly time spent not going to shows, but just going places. Whether it is to visit friends, running errands, trips to the grocery store or Walmart, going to the rink for a game, to take my kid to the park... I can take an old car because my family is comfortable for ride. I don't have to twist my wife's arm to ride in a car that they're freezing in or sweating to death in, and it isn't a coincidence that the car with no heat has sat undriven in the garage for the last 2 years.

 

Heat yes, A/C no. My 53 Chev has dealer installed heat.

I don't use the A/C in my 09 Chevy truck, and I don't have A/C in my house, it makes me sick to my stomach going in and out of it.

 

I haven't installed heaters or ac in my old cars in the past. Now that I am 80yo I am more sensitive to the heat and cold. So yes, I have Vintage AC and Heat in my 1942 Ford.

 

That is a real Bitchin' thing there. Mine's usually Mexican carry....if downtown.

 

sing it brother, know exactly what you mean !

 

I used a gas style ball valve for my shutoff which I can easily reach from the drivers seat .
Ball valves are usually preferred over gate valves.

 

Yes, I do. Courtesy of J. C. Whitney, many years ago. Keeps my little truck very comfortable.

Turn on the heater, Peter. I think we're gonna need 'er!

 

What did you use for hardlines on this, looks tidy