Looking for some "been there, done that" type of experience. Have a '50 pontiac. Brakes are shot. I intend to remove the under seat heater to make way for dual exhaust (set up for SBC). Interested to know if anybody has found a good way of dealing with the loss of the underseat heater and if they had also found a clever way of upgrading the front brakes and/or master cylinder. My master and front brakes are shot. Rather than spend the money to polish a turd of a braking system, I think I'd rather upgrade. I'm considering going to scarebird front disc conversion. Even though they still currently require different wheels. I'd like to be able to use a dual reservoir master w/ a 7" booster. The only ideas that I am coming up with at the moment are: 1. eliminate the front heater core and housing and loose all heat, and mount the master/booster on the firewall. or 2. Make a bracket, new pedal, and cut a passage through the frame bracing to mount the booster and master under the floor/seat. Option 1 kind of sucks cause I'd loose all heat. Option 2 sucks because access might be an issue. Might have to run a remote reservoir. So has anybody actually done this and come up with a good way to accomplish this? I'd be very interested in seeing pictures. I'm going to tackle it one way or the other, just don't want to re-invent the wheel, if this has already been done before. Just for qualifiers: -Pontiac chassis is different than chevy and olds Thanks for the help.
Perhaps you can get an aftermarket heater that fits under the seat, but on top of the floor? I put one of these in my crewcab, and it works great, becuase it heats cabin air insted of fresh air, so I have plenty of heat and still get fresh air through the stock heater.
I don't understand Pontiac's fascination with under seat heaters in the 50's... From what i understand they never worked well. I know it's way different, but here's what I did on my '57. ALL HEATERS GONE. I had one where the master should be and under seat too. Put the master on the firewall with a small booster, brakes work great. Did a disc conversion from Master Power brakes with 15's to clear the calipers. The master/booster set up is a universal set-up with pedal, like what you would get from Speedway. Future plans are for a under dash heat-A/C unit, but nothing right now.. I really prefer the master up top for ease of service, but everyone has a preference. Look through my build thread or photos in my profile and you can check it out.
I took out all the factory heaters in my 55 also, very close design to the 50. I just run it in the summer and not worried about a heater. But down the road I would probably look into a heater unit from vintage air, there a couple hundred bucks . Probably mount it behind the dash and hook up to the defroster vents and another outlet venting out under the dash towards the floor. As fas as the mc, I welded up a 1/8 plate to cover up all the holes from the defroster. Figured with the thicker plate help with rigidity also. I only went with a manual mc but used a hanging pedal from a 55 chevy. I had to make some modifications like cutting off the dash side of the hanging pedel for the speedo and build another support. And with where I wanted to mount it on the firewall I cut off the pedel and made the arm longer more like the factory location for the actual pedal. I still have a mc/booster out of a late 70's gm full size car I was going to use but decided with where I had to go in at the firewall wasn't to my liking. I raised my engine up higher for exhaust clearance it was to close to the booster. Maybe with a sbc it would work.
In my '51 Pontiac wagon, I put the M/C where the defroster unit lived, ditched the underheat seater (after it started leaking!). I've got an under-dash A/C/heat/defroster that work out fine, although the defroster is pretty weak. The car is subframed with a Caprice clip. Brian
some good info. Thanks Bryan for the good photos in your thread. All things to consider. I appreciate it. In the meantime..... here is another link I found that might be helpful someone else delving into the poncho realm. Steps for converting to power steering. http://www.waasadata.com/pontiac/steering.html
No problem... If you need more specifics or pics let me know. Can scour the memory or take more pictures if need be. Sounds as though everyone dumps the firewall defroster. If you're looking to maintain heat or defrost you can get a stand alone heater only box for under $200.
my gf's 50 pontiac has a master and power booster mounted on the firewall (in what became the usual location the factory put em) i didnt do it and im not exactly happy with it but it works the prvious owner used parts from anova and a elcamino to "build" it i removed the underthe seat heater and the under the dash heater so it has NO heat but its not driven during the winter and with the sbc under the hood it gets very warm inside http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a148/69runner383/janets%2050%20pontiac/69.jpg heres a pic under the hood
As much as I'd like to use a booster, I'm no considering dumping a booster and just using a dual reservoir MC. I think that I could easily fab up a bracket that would allow the dual pot res to be mounted at the stock location of the original MC and use the same linkage. Access would still be a pain, but it wouldn't be on the firewall and the defroster would stay. The other thing that might work is my idea of mounting it under the floor and then using the Kugal Komponents remote reservoir MC lid and put a remote reservoir somewhere else. That venture could add up quick though. I've been doing some math and converting to discs would be about half as expensive of rebuilding all the stock front brakes (if I had to buy drums). A lot to consider here. Thanks for the tips and pictures everybody they are very helpful. here's a pic of what I'm working on:
If you dont plan on driving it daily in the dead of winter I found an electric heater that I'm going to install in my dad's 38 chevy sedan. I spent a lot of time cutting a sheet of aluminum an polishing it up for a smooth firewall and I wanted to drill as few holes as possible and couldn't see pumping hot coolant into the car when the heater will rarely be used. The company is called DC Thermal, the heater is about the size of a box of kleenex and is 5000 watts. The best part is that its made in USA with a good warranty.
If your going disc, I think at least with the Scarebird kit it reuses the drum hub. You can replace the ball bearings with a tapered bearing kit for a 39-54 chevy 1/2 ton truck. It shares the same bearings and seals as your car.
Jon, take the heater out and get either a Vintage Air (or similar) unit and mount it up out of sight, run the stock demister vents off it.
Here is a link to my realtively cheap "fix" for the brakes, I wanted to keep the firewall clean, upgrade to a dual master, have remote reservoirs and keep the stock pedal assembly without using some Rube Goldberg bell crank mess ... http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=308693
If you're not going to use a booster, I would sure check out the m.c. that "Scarebird" posted. Whatever you decide, please take lots of pictures and post what you did, as this topic comes up alot. As you have found out, no one makes a bolt in "kit" for pontiacs. Good luck, and nice build.
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