VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 1940 back seat heater

Good morning,
yesterday I came back from a 1000 mls trip with my 1940, the neighbors named it "blue whale", and the car run wonderful. Constant speed of 55 to 60 mph is definitly no problem. And I like the "throttle" knob on dash. Pull it and just steer the car. Relaxing.
My question. Back home I had a package waiting from a deal at ebay.com. I bought a original chevrolet (Harrison) front heater combined with blower for the windshield to replace my only blower for windshield which is not original and sometimes leaking too.

The book "Pictorial history of Chevrolet 1929 to 1939" shows (at page #225) a 1938 chevy with an heater (or just ventilator) under the rear seat blowing out at feet area. Was that part as well available for later cars? Would be a nice additional for my 1940 because I have a drivers car and people sitting on rear seat told me, the front under seat heater does not reach the rear seat and I would like all passengers to feel comfortable and be sure in spring I am the first leaving the garage and the last on street in autumn. So I need the heating system. As well it is a good "first aid" to get the engine down from boiling temperature in case of ending in a traffic jam after longer time on highway with constant high speed.
Not to explain that here, you all know the effect of "stored heat" in the engine.

Regards
Stefangermany

The under REAR seat heater was available only in 1938 and 1939. I have never seen one.
The 1940 under FRONT seat heater ducts heat to both the front and rear floors so the rear seat passengers will have warm feet.

Sounds as if you are having a lot of fun with your new toy....wonderful

The '40 does have cut outs in the seat frame that line up with openings in the lower seat, so it should be possible to add the heater if you find one. Do you have a picture of the heater for the '38/39? For that matter, do you have pictures of the under seat heaters for the front of the '40? I have the under dash heater in mine, and I remember it putting out LOTS of heat and defrost.

Hello,
I dont have pictures yet. The 38/39 back seat heater is in that book as written about above. my under dash unit is just a defroster unit for the windscreen and heats poor and leaks (only few drops but enough to get out vapor instead of air and using that defroster lets me see less than without using it. But now summer appears and I have enough time until autumn to get everything in order.

Actually I work on a combines defroster/heater unit which I bought at ebay.com, but both motors are over and it is hard work to get them back to life. The under seat unit seems to be an original one, it works well.

Stefan

Contact Roger Kaster at bkaster0405@rogers.com. I bought my restored heater/defroster from him five years ago and it's been super. Be advised that e-mail address is five years old and might not be good any longer. He used to sell a lot of restored heaters on ebay but I haven't seen him listing lately.

Roger is still there. I just found this listing. He does very good work.

Hello, thanks for that nice idea, but
1st I would not pay 339.- $$$ for a heater
2nd he sells not outside US and I am in germany.
3rd I need a combined heater/defroster unit which I already bought. I want to get warm feet and a clean window...

I am just happy with the cheap junk I bought and am at 80% of the way to get it restored.
The heater motor works fine now, the core holds the water and the defroster motor will not be a big problem anymore. Will fix it tomorrow.

Stefan