model a heater

[gpits68]

hello all,has anyone added an aftermarket heater to their model a.i was thinking of trying to put a heater core and fan under the seat of my pickup,with some cutting.i feel its needed because my wife is cold natured.trying to avoid the manifold heater because of carbon monoxide scare if there would be an exhaust leak.thoughts,opinions please.

 

[Keith True]

It's been done by probably thousands of people over the years.My Tudor had one bolted to the firewall,but the bolts fatigued and the previous owner took it out and gave it to me with the car.He said it worked great.I don't see why one under the seat in a pickup wouldn't work,you would just have to cut some outlets in the seat riser for the air to blow out and a way to let some air in.I used to have a pretty good assortment of 6 volt box heaters.Eliot antique auto parts had a bus with a hundred or more piled up in it.I scored a bunch out of there,most of them went into old plow Jeeps.Do some searching,old pickups,machinery,Jeeps,all had almost a universal heater in them.

 

[Bob K. St Paul]

I installed an Autolite manifold heater in a 29 coupe and find it provides more heat than needed. I installed an control cable from heater vent door to the steering column to easily control and change the setting. This works well.

 

[mrfirebird73]

Vent it out under the seat right and you could have a heated seat.

 

[Dennis L Oberer]

I have added a hot water heater to the 30 coupe. Email me for pics. It heats up the cab in about 10 minutes and this is in Green Bay in the winter.

If I leave the heater on full blast it will literally drive you out of the car with the heat.

And no engine smells nor problems with the manifold heater. I had them on the Tudor in 1965-1970....what a pain....all sorts of issues in real cold weather. Not the least of which is no way to defrost the windshield.

Dennis L Oberer
Green Bay WI

 

[Dennis L Oberer]

ooops...I meant the problems I had were WITH the manifold heater....fingers too stiff and old...mind going too....

Dennis O

 

[t.jamison]

I too have an Autolite. Some heat and some engine compartment vapors. Delightful!!!

 

[Curt Campbell]

Vintage Air makes a couple small coolant fed heaters for hot rods and antiques. Have not seen one in use but they seem like a reasonable product for a model A. I am going to consider one when restoring my 31 Tudor this winter. Gets chilly in Iowa.

http://www.vintageair.com/catalog10/2010%20VintageAir%20Catalog%20web%20hi-res%20%28Page%2023%29.pdf

 

[steve s]

Here's what I did. I found this old aftermarket heater in an old truck in a junk yard, back in the days when you could browse around in junk yards.

It JUST fits. Note the gas shut off handle had to be bent. The firewall already had holes chopped in it I could use for my hoses, so I was spared that agony. Sorry the hose pic is fuzzy.

Had some repair done at radiator shop, replaced motor with 12V model, painted it up (to match my non-authentic interior). There's a thin four-blade fan (not shown) that mounts on the motor shaft just behind the hinged doors

Works like a charm, especially when I use a thermostat in cooling system. I didn't bother to rig up a variable flow valve to modulate the temperature. I did rig up an array of voltage dropping diodes to try to create a multi-speed fan out of a motor that really wasn't intended for such--sort of works. I put the control switch in the kick panel beside my wife!

Steve