56 truck deluxe heater box assembly

[JumboAMONGus]

HELLO ALL ,,, I have a 56 chevy truck old owner put a 56 car heater box in it and i have a torn apart truck deluxe box i was wondering if anyone had a picture or how to re assemble it and if they make a seal kit or was there any seals , any info and specially pictures , .. so i can see if i am missing anything ,.. thank you .. also anyone have a squirrel cage , or heater motor fan ,

[62lwbc10]

Hi I just went through this and took a bunch of pics but alas I accidentally deleted them when I got a new phone. Do a search of this site and you will find several threads wherein at least one member took a lot of pics, I'm pretty sure he posted a link to his photo bucket page with lots of pics. Like I said I just completely rebuilt mine so if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask

[62lwbc10]

http://s685.photobucket.com/user/tmo...76717500252813

[JumboAMONGus]

thank you 62lwbc10 , that helped alot i am missing all the heater core brackets , and heater core , but it was given to me free and my truck someone put a 56 chevy car deluxe box in it ,it fits fine but hoses are in different location for heater core and the cables for the heat/defrost dont work ,

[Daze57]

yo jumbo

i am with 62lwbc10 - i just rebuilt my delux heater also and can help out on questions if ya have any .
also just so ya know i have an extra squirrel cage and whole heater fan unit .
but i would rebuild the little fan motor.

[JumboAMONGus]

i have a good heater motor , and squirl cage from another heater i had , now im just missing the brackets that hold the heater core in , the big square part , and was the box sealed with anything or just screwed together ? , im thinking using some sorta rubber gasket so its a more sealed box ,

[62lwbc10]

Hey Jumbo the box is just screwed together, you can clearly see where the screws go by the holes that are on the perimeter of both halves of the heater box. There are two rubber seals: one that joins the unit to the fresh air intake in the cowl and one that connects the blower unit to the heater core box itself. These seals are like big rubber bands (look like inner tube material).

[Daze57]

^ 62lwbc10 is quite correct on his answers - i will add this when you buy the new seals ( big rubber bands) - they are a huge P I T A to get on . believe me i know i have done several of them . easiest way i found to do it is this; stretch the band on the box ( its a bear but it will go on) then (ya ready for this?) fold it back onto it self which is even harder. then put some soft bayling wire and tightin the wire . put the whole heater assembly in place -line up everything the best you can - tighten your bolts then when all is lined up - cut the wire off and flip the folded back flap forward and hopefully it will conform the the adjacent piece.
it is a b&^%* but it can be done -

[JumboAMONGus]

i have one smaller rubber band and it was split with a snap button , looks like the original that must be for the vent that goes tot he kick panel

[Daze57]

both bands were solid - no splits - one was a bit smaller than the other - very tight fitting

[JumboAMONGus]

where to find the right paint for the heater box i was reading home depot rustoleum hammertone grey then i heard silver mine the one half of the box is a faded grey but the back half to firewall was a different color ,

[JumboAMONGus]

[IMG]URL=http://s1187.photobucket.com/user/greatmonkeynutz/media/picsphonetruckheater018_zps98d6699d.jpg.html][/URL][/IMG]

[JumboAMONGus]

i must have a heater for a left handed car ? or were some on the inside towards firewall for the cables , also here is a pic of the original rubber for the heater blower section i found ,

[JumboAMONGus]

[IMG][/IMG]

[JumboAMONGus]

[IMG][/IMG]

[JumboAMONGus]

it had a snap on it , ,,, and looks original but you never know , it fits tight to , i will use it , when i rebuild , the heater ,

[Daze57]

hmmmm first time i had seen a band that way ! great idea
prolly would have saved myself alot of time and effort if i had one like that .

thanks for the picts!!!

[62lwbc10]

I fully agree with daze. Those rubber bands were a major pita to get on. His suggestions are good. I've never seen the bands with that button, very interesting. Look for my recent thread on this subject and you can see what the rustoleum hammertone silver looks like. It's pretty cool but in retrospect the black, which is more like a dark grey, would be a closer match to the original color

[62lwbc10]

Sorry I actually used hammertone GREY which as you can see is more like a silver. Again in my opinion the black, which is more like a dark gunmetal grey is closer to what my box had for its original color

[1project2many]

Hammertone has a color that is correct for the heater box. I might still have the rest of the can I used so many years ago. I matched the original colors and can take pictures.

For a replacement seal I used a bicycle tube cut to the the same width as the original seal strip. After installing the heater I pulled the tube around the heater box and and glued the two halves together. I don't believe anyone was selling a new seal back then.

Fan motors similar to the original are still available today. School buses use auxiliary rear heaters which have similar motors. Look for Bergstrom heater motors and you might be able to locate one. I'd try to find one with three speeds built in in order to bypass the resistors on the switch. The resistors get extremely warm in low speed and it doesn't do the switch any good long term. The three speed blower motors have a separate coil / wire for each speed so you could cut the resistors and connect each wire to the terminal on the switch where the resistor was attached.

[JumboAMONGus]

yes i seen your pics ,, looks good , my box was two tone the part next to firewall was dark silver grey and the outside part was grey more a greyish primer , also do the numbers stamped on back side ,does that tell the year mine stamped 8 58 then the painted part was bluerred and had 57 on end , same with the heater blower motor mount had a blurred 57 painted with some other numbers to smudged to read

[62lwbc10]

Interesting about the two colors mine wasn't like that. The stamped numbers near the Harrison stamp are the month and year of manufacture, the yellow stamps are the inspector marks

[62lwbc10]

Also I meant to mention. Do you have the spacers that are needed to attach the unit to the firewall? They need to be the right lengths and there are actually two lengths and they need to be on specific studs of the unit or you will run into problems. The spacers are especially important to be able to deal with the already discussed rubber band seals. Daze will be able to provide the spacer lengths, I can't remember what they are but I got the info from one his old posts. I lost my spacers and made them with some PVC pipe

[JumboAMONGus]

no i do not have spacers ,,, i am missing spacers and all screws and nuts , all the studs are there and major hardware except the bracket that holds the heater core in , im hoping the car style heater box that is in there now will have the same style bracket to hold the heater core in place , im not sure , i look at pics online and they seam to look the same ,

[JumboAMONGus]

here a pic of the heater in it now ,and it fits fine just different holes for the hose's ,,and the cable for def/ heat im hoping the heater core is the same or the bracket that mounts it [IMG][/IMG]