Re: The Duchess Project: 1940 Super 8 Convertible Sedan

Posted by Joe Santana On 2020/3/17 20:42:59

UNDERSEAT HEATER

I could not make the breaker relay open again. I ran headlights, heaters, fog lights for a half hour. More investigation in order. Running the engine may make a difference.

Some of this repeated earlier, but now it's all in one place. My original heater defroster motor had bad bushings and the rheostats on my paddle switch were shot. I acquired extra switches on eBay and sent them to Precision Power to be refurbished. I had the motor rebuilt locally at Auto Battery & Electric. Convertibles are cold and the windows fog up. Before the motor was fixed, the defroster couldn't quite keep up on some mornings. To get more heat, I started looking for a Dual Stream under-the-seat heater.

The Dual Stream under seat heater was first introduced on 1940 cars and positioned under the passenger seat. I found one for parts really cheap. I had the radiator component checked and it was good.

I had the whole thing de-rusted by soaking. Used primer filler on the top and painted it. I had the motor rebuilt at AB&E. The bottom pan was shot completely but I was able to use it for measurements to make a mechanical drawing in Adobe Illustrator (my turf in advertising) and convert it to an AutoCad file. A local steel fabricator laser cut the sheet metal from the file and another shop formed it to match the original. They reinforced the cup that the motor sits in with a metal wrap and reused it.

The heaters are set up in series. Included are pix of the hoses top side and where they run under the car.

When both heaters are on it is so toasty warm. The Dual Stream does blow heat forward and back. It really works. I will post pix next. I have to work on them.