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Thanks everyone. These suggestions are like gold! Driver and passenger comfort makes so much difference in a car I mean to drive regularly again, after the snow melts. Yes, folks, several inches in the past two days.

It was helpful to find details on what you used as flex piping on your blog, and especially to see the pic on the method used to secure the fresh air cable to the side of the vent flapper valve. I was wondering what type of clip was used, now I know! Will now try and find my clips.

Larry51,

You see things in my pics that I don't even know about yet. Just goes to show how helpful a picture can be if you've got something torn down and are looking for the piece that got away.

I kind of like the "semi-rigid" dryer duct for a couple of practical reasons and one purely vanity.

The silver color of the flexible ducts SHOULD transfer less ambient heat from the engine compartment into the air flowing through them. The black piping and flexible ducts would absorb more heat (although they also radiate it quicker--might be a wash).

The other practical reason for the silver ducts is that they are quite forgiving to install and work around. You can kind of manhandle them into position without worrying too much about deforming them, and push the piece that blocks access to the master cylinder out of the way to get a wrench on the plug easier. Plus, if one of them gets ripped or crushed, you'll have plenty of spare stock. I think the piece I got expands out to about 10'

But the REAL payoff is all those under-hood gawkers who think that you must have a massive turbo (the heater motor helps with the illusion), and the silver ducts will impress them even more. For extra fun, rig another piece of duct that leads across to the intake. Cosmetic hot-rodding at its finest.

Way cool. As another alternative the black rubber I used , secured at seams with rivets,washers and plastic insulator washers, is sealed well, flexable, quiet, and with reusable black band clamps or sacraficial cheap plastic clamps can be removed and reinstalled over and over again for svc access and can place the seam up to show the aircraft style look or placed down to be invisable.

The R&R aspect of tape is, of course, an issue. I just don't want to have to take them off and put them back on a regular basis, which was the issue with the old rubberized one next on the driver's side. A new OEM style would be easier to remove than that old one, which had hardened and was very fragile. When I get to detailing the engine compartment, these will probably be the last step, so I don't have to worry about messing up the new ones while I scrub and degrease and paint.

It would be interesting to see a pic of your clamping system, if you have one available.

I will post pics shortly.

While working on another project many years ago I needed to cushion (rubber insulate) the fuel tank and radiator mounts I had fabricated. At my local full service hardware store (not insert any big box store) I stumbled accross 1/4 in and 1/8 in and 3/16 black rubber. He had the 1/4 and 1/8 in rolls 3ft wide sold by the foot-cheap. This is not masticated rubber as sold on some web sites, just black rubber (see pix). I used the 1/8 in to renew the vent flapper seals using the old as patterns traced onto the new and cut with a large pair of old school tin snips I had. They made very clean, accurate curved cuts with speed and ease. For this project all the cuts are straight so a steel ruler or sheetrock Tsq and utility knife will work also. I measured the OD ofthe tube with the wifes cloth tape and the length needed and allowed a 1 in overlap on all sides and cut the rubber sheet, punched 1/8 holes along the edge of the rolled seam, measure and mark a straight line equal to the tube circumference , and rolled the sheet and pushed an awl through to mark the hole. I used a rivet with a plastic washer under the head and a stainless washer on the inside but you may use any combination of hrdwr that suits you. With apprx 1 in rivet spacing I tried to insert a feeler gauge half way between the rivets and the seam is quite tight. You may decrease the rivet spacing if you like but I find there is no air space due to rivet clamping. I had the seam up but if the seam is turned to the bottom as well as the band clamp heads the repair will be unnoticeable, though not accordian style like the original they are flexible, quiet, with no unwanted air,heat, or engine noise. They are easy to remove and install by pinching in the middle and wiggling forward and bending in half. It took an afternoon for the 2 and about eleven bucks. I know there are factory correct black flex hoses on the market and some have said something about organ pipe ducting but the ones I had seen were in the 75 dollar range. If anyone else has a solution It would be helpful to post a link or vendor and a price rather than just a statement of "aftermarket" or "wind pipe duct" .
The vent flaps took about a day including removing,preping, and painting the pipes,flaps,dash heater box etc but that was done when the fenders were off preping for paint.

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I have no pix of the vent flap project as none taken at the time.

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Grainger, an industrial supply store, also sells one-foot squares of rubber as you describe in varying thickness. Handy stuff to have around.

(o{}o)

Thanks for "showing your work," customclipper55. By leaving the seam and clamp ends up in your pics, it's easy to see how it works. I suppose you turn the duct 180? around to show the "clean" side when in use.

The clamps are interesting. They look like they'd be useful for snugging up the ends of almost any kind of flexible duct one would choose. They also look a lot more "finished" than duct tape.

You mentioned they were "black band clamps" in your earlier post. Is this what I ask for in the hardware store? What width and length worked for you? Can they be loosened and tightened again after installation? Thanks again.