Glad it worked out for you; as I've had ongoing engine issues haven't had a
chance to check out my thesis yet. But no reason it shouldn't work,
especially if you rub the cases down to shiny aluminum with steel wool like
I did with mine. But since this is a never-ending problem with all all AC
VWs, maybe I should patent some kind of refurb kit :)

On 11/7/06 7:21 AM, "Jake Beaulieu" <jbeaulie@ND.EDU> wrote:

> Hey AC vanagon drivers,
>
> I took Nathaniel's advice and opened up my heater boxes last week (see
> original message below).  As expected, the original box on the passengers
> side was full of varnished oil from 25 years of oil leaks.  The drivers
> side box had been replaced 3 years ago and has had a nasty chemical smell
> since the day I installed it.  Turns out that the stench was coming from
> the glue used to adhere the fiberglass mat to the inside of the box.  I
> threw out the fiberglass mat (there was one on the top and bottom of the
> box) and scraped out all of the residual glue.  A shame really, since the
> mat and associated foil lining probably helped to retain some heat and the
> glue was totally unnecessary.  Well the results are wonderfull.  The hot
> air has just the slightest tinge of that formerly overpowering
> oil/chemical stench.  I took a couple hour drive last weekend in
> temperatures that dropped into the upper 20s and actually stayed warm (at
> least when I was at highway speed)!  To anyone dealing with stinky heat in
> an air cooled van I would reccomend Nathaniel's suggestion.  After seeing
> how strongly that old oil and glue was adhered to the inside of the box I
> can say with certainty that there is no way that simply power spraying the
> inside of the box at a carwash would clean it up.
>
> C-ya,
> Jake
>
> On Wed, 25 Oct 2006 22:02:35 -0700, Nathaniel Poole <npoole@TELUS.NET>
> wrote:
>
>> For all the air cooled iconoclasts lurking on this list I've just finished
>> rebuilding my heaters and posted the results on Samba at
>>
>> http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?
> t=200832&sid=e4c26bc6da53de3
>> 6e42afccabcb291fb
>>
>> If you scroll past the dishwasher divergence in the thread (which is funny
>> enough) I've got some pics showing how I did it. It really wasn't
> difficult.
>> Nobody should put up with that smell or crummy heat.
>>
>>