VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 1940 P/U---defroster vents

I found a set of defroster deflectors and a NOS heater/defroster motor. The defroster deflectors are right and left deflectors. Do these deflectors (where the hose connects to the deflector)when mounted under the dash, are they pointed toward the firewall or towards the dash and are the hose connections pointing towards eash other or away from each other? Is there a wye connection from the defroster motor to the deflectors. Something to ponder over: I saw a restored 1940 chev P/U from alaska, The heater in the truck was gasoline operated. Gas line came off the carburator. This heator came from GM, drawbacks where fuel leakage and fires. Has anyone seen these heaters?

If you send me your email address I can send you a picture of the defroster system.
Chevrolet never made a gas heater (except Corvair)....the common aftermarket gas heater sold back then was the South Wind....made by Stewart Warner I believe.
The gas heaters were safe, gave almost instant heat but did consume gas....whcich lowered the gas milage.

My dad had a 1946 Chevrolet pickup with a Stewart Warner gas heater in it when I was a kid. Man, that heater was slick! To this day I can still remember how hot that heater was...and it was way better than the conventional accessory hot water heater.

Got one of those in stock on the shelf in my shop too. I've had it for so long I totally forgot where it came from.

Chevgene: My email address: picpockett_414@msn.com I appreciate the help. Harold Pickett You were right about the name of the gas heaters, I just assumed that was a gm add on.

Chevgene,

I have a 1940 Chev 1/2 ton pickup also, and I could use a photo of the defroster system, as my defroster ducts are some kind of after-market or home-made. My email address is mryeamans@yahoo.com.

To Harold and any others that might be interested, my pickup has a period-type Chevrolet Deluxe heater with a separate defroster fan unit piggy-backed on top of the heater unit. The heater itself has two hinged horizontal doors that can be adusted to direct the flow of warm air as desired. I've been anxiously awaiting the arrival of cold weather to test the system. Last week it snowed here in Reno and the temperature got down to 8 degrees one night. I deliberately left the truck out in the weather the night before because I also wanted to test the cold weather startability of the engine. In fact, in the morning, the engine turned over quite a bit faster than I thought it would and fired right away, though it took several tries to keep it running. As soon as I got in the cab to start the engine, the windshield and windows began to fog and ice up. After warming the engine up, I turned on the heater and defroster fans. Both windshields began to de-ice right away, and within 10 minutes on the road, they were nearly completely clear, while the side and back windows remained iced up. The heater works great,too, keeping the cab very comfortable while driving on the highway at 50 mph with an outside air temperature of 8 degrees. I find that for best defroster operation, the vent doors on the heater need to be closed and the heater motor has to be running with the defroster motor, otherwise the defroster fan just pulls air up the front face of the heater coil and not across the coil. My cab is pretty tight, with newer weather stripping and windlace on the doors, windows, and windshield, and a good-fitting 5/8" birch plywood floor panel with a felt pad and rubber mat over it, and the cab picks up a great deal of heat from the uninsulated firewall. On a typical non-restored truck of this era, it would be pretty drafty in the cab, and the heater might not be able to overcome the draftiness. The down side of a tight cab is that it gets pretty hot in the summertime, though with the cowl vent, side windows, and windshield open, the air circulation is great and it's not really that uncomfortable. In fact, already I long for the hot days of summer.

Mark Yeamans
VCCA #35724

Mark,
Back in their "day" the Chevrolet "6" was known for its ability to start in cold weather. With a good battery and #10 oil they will start at 25 below. Will turn over slow and with modern 5W-30 oil will be even better. Its necessary to keep the choke about 3/4 out for the first minute then slowly back it off.
The first thing you do in cold weather is to open a window part way to allow fresh air (low humidity) to enter. For the passenger cars it was necessary to keep a wing window open The more people in the car the worse it gets.(unless every one holds their breath)
This was a more or less eleminated with a heater that brought in fresh air. I have the accessory fresh air attachment on my '39 car. It keeps the windows from steaming up in riany weather but never have tried it in real cold weather.

Gene,

Thanks for sending the photo of the heater/defroster and for the additional info on cold weather operation. I don't expect to be doing much cold weather driving, but it's nice to know that my truck will start in the morning if I do make a road trip in the winter.

Mark