Hi. Anyone have a clue what year this heater might be from? Aftermarket? Factory? The only markings I can find are EATON stamped in the mounting bracket.
But not '41...that year had a little knob in one corner to work the defroster divert; the later ones had that up on the control with the electrical switch.
'42 - '48. I have one like it in our '47 Convertible. I had a '48 TuDor that had the '49 style heater, with the heater box mounted to the firewall under the hood, it had an air scoop attached to the inside of the hood on the passengers side that funneled air into the box.
Bruce, that's right, it was the fresh air heater but, as I recall (and that way almost 50 years ago) it had the same switch as the early unit, I think it had two forward and two reverse fan speeds and a defroster pull cable.
This is the heater shown in the 46-48 sales literature:
This is the fresh air heater:
And these are pictures of that heater in my car:
The inlet of the air duct that takes air from in front of the radiator:
That then goes along under the hood:
Meeting the fan on the firewall when the hood is closed. The cable going up over the duct controls the damper in the duct (bottom of pivot shaft seen near fan port) to control the air going through the duct.
Into the heater coil on the passenger side of the firewall.
To go out both sides of the bottom plus a slit along the bottom unless that damper is pulled up to divert it to the windshield.
Three dashboard controls. Left for defrost. Middle one direction two speed fan switch. Right controls the damper in the hood duct to control the outside air coming in.
I found that a 1978-1982 Ford E-150 heater core fits this heater perfectly.
I have one of these in my 36 pick up and I removed the fan, motor, and defroster unit and replaced it with a 7" fan used on motorcycles. Really makes the unit fit close in to the firewall. (The pickup has no provision for a defroster). The fan is very quiet, too.