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I don't know why I thought the lettering was red. It will be a lot easier just to clean them up, thanks.

I got the hood and truck back on my panel rack yesterday. Hoping they are easier to work this way. Neither one needs a lot of work at this point. I am just not ready to put them back on the car yet.

How reliable do you think the heater valve is? Can it be rebuilt?

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The heater valve may work as is but chances are the old seal is dry and could be on a short life span. They can be rebuilt and Kev put together a good how-to article which is in the literature archive.

If the seal has cracked and is leaking, unless it is a huge leak it will not be all that evident. On the passenger side the leak would occur above and fall down behind the carpet and typically run down the sheetmetal under the padding. It will either be absorbed in the padding and not be noticed until the pad is saturated and the coolant smell is very prominent or with luck, a larger flow may continue down and be seen on the garage floor after it collects in the depression surrounding a body bolt location and drips out.

I went to NAPA and ordered that heat valve seal. I should have it tomorrow. The price was still $9 as stated in the rebuild instructions but I saved on shipping by going to the store.
Making slow progress on the dash. Look at the lettering on the radio knob below. That is why I thought the lettering was red.
I am planing to clean up and install the original radio but it will be just for looks. I am not going to wire it up. Not going to install the speaker with all the tubes either. I will probably install a radio in the trunk later.
Also no going to wire up the lighter or the speaker switch.

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I am glad I let you talk me into rebuilding that heater valve.

That rubber seal was shot.

New and old seals are in lower left corner.

BigKev's instructions were excellent.

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Well that did not go as planned.
Taking that heater valve apart was one thing. Putting it back together again
is another.

The copper tabs are in good shape and it fits back into the base plate well enough but the tabs do not come through the face plate enough to bend them back over to secure it together.

I guess what happened is that the "light" hammering I did to straighten the copper tabs also bend the whole copper flange out of shape so that the tabs are at different heights now.

I'll try again tomorrow but I have to figure out how to fix this flange. Its about $110 bucks for a new valve.

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I had a similar issue when doing mine. when assembling it I couldn't get it to seat tight. so I took a piece of hardwood, drilled a 15/16" hole 3 " deep, cut out the top portion, place a hardened washer on top, this had a portion of it cut out to fit around the copper pipe. then I place a 3/4" socket on top and with a clamp pulled it snug before bending the tabs down. seemed to work, hopefully the photos attached
packardinfo.com/xoops/html/uploads/newbb/216126_60a3525f0342f.jpg
packardinfo.com/xoops/html/uploads/newbb/216126_60a3528180b5e.jpg

Here's the rig that I made to 'squeeze' my heater valves together when rebending the tabs, same concept as Dads 56:

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One thing to keep in mind when working copper is that it will work harden when being bent several time, which can lead to pieces snapping off. There are several web sites that show how to anneal the copper so it is safer to bend.

You know Marty, I hadn't thought of that in relation to rebuilding these heater valves! Excellent point, I'll try annealing the tabs next time I rebuild one. Thanks!

For copper that thick, you'll probably need to heat the area for ~15 sec at or near red hot. The copper will turn black in the area being heated, but that should not be an issue as is should clean off with a green abrasive pad. Also, do not force cool let is just cool by itself.

The same applies to other metals such as brass.

Good Luck on your next heater valve project.