Skip to main content
Gerry | Vanagon
Checking account...
← vanagon.com home · Continue the discussion in the forum
VanagonEuroVan
Subject:I have HEAT!!!
From:Mark Janello
Date:Mon, 9 Oct 1995 17:10:14 -0400 (EDT)

Well, I just spent a few afternoons hooking up the heat
on my '62 Kombi.  The PO hadn't used it, so the heater hoses
were gone and the cables were disconnected.  The heater
boxes were starting to rust and one of the metal tabs that
bolts to the lower tin had snapped off, so I smeared on
a lot of muffler paste and JBWeld to seal the hole, sanded
and scraped for a while, and slapped on some exhaust paint.

Getting them off in the first place was quite a chore, those
header nuts were pretty frozen and there isn't much room to
wield a wrench (contort arm and shoulder into unnatural position,
use all strength to move wrench 1/8 turn, repeat for 20 mins.,
do it 12 hrs/day in the rain for a month and turn into
Bob Hoover :)  (Bob, just removing those 4 nuts convinced me
you are awesome!)).  So I bought some brass nuts from the
local VW parts supplier, used my trusty die to clean up the
studs, and they went back on nicely.

Then I hooked up all my hoses (had some fun with the fresh
air heater boxes on one end (about 2 3/8 in.) and stale air
bus body tube on the other (2 in), including some new seals
between the tin and the cold air hose, wired the flappers to the
cable, and I had HEAT!!!  It was very exciting, esp. as we've
been having some cool weather here in SE Mich.  So I drove
to our little greasy drive in not-a-VW-club gettogether with
my hand stuffed in the little defrost outlet in amazement.

'Course, when it's -40 I might not be so happy.

Mark
'62 Kombi, a great early autumn car :)

Have something to add on this topic today? Revive this thread in the forum »