Climatizer

Today, I put the heater core and surround in the car.

First, out comes the front seat: on an old Studebaker, the heater, which is called a "climatizer,"  goes under the passenger side of the front seat. I then removed the cover plate since my car didn't come with heat originally.

Unfortunately, because of the batwing I installed earlier, I couldn't maneuver the surround into position with the front tube in place.

A quick trip over to the drill press to drill out a single spot weld, and the tube was off and the surround dropped into place.

  

 

I was then able to slide the tube into place, and fix it with a small nut and bolt.

Now it is time to fit the heater core into place. First, I recreated some thick gaskets/padding material from some old dense foam exercise matting that was the right thickness.

Then the heater core drops into place.

Not wanting that pretty new heater core exposed like that, I went ahead and cleaned and painted the top cover--which not only protects the core but is designed to divert some of the heat over to the driver's side of the car.  However, I must've not got it cleaned well enough--or it wasn't warm enough in the garage--as I got some fish-eyes in the paint. That's an easy fix later as it is only 3 bolts and I can leave the seat in position to do that.  But here it is for now, and it is ready to finish up the rest of the cooling system.