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Galaxie heater box rebuild

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11K views 14 replies 9 participants last post by  DeepRoots  
#1 · (Edited)
Never did have a heater.
well, winter is coming, figured I would get it all working.

Pulled the heater box and found that the heater core had leaked, which I expected. What I didn't expect was a previous owner had cut ALL the wires going to the blower in multiple places.
So having no clue if the blower worked, I had to figure that out. Remember there are three heater door cables attached to the box, so remove slowly so you can access the cable on the backside and remove it.

Got the box pulled and hot wired the blower. It worked... awesome, so I hooked power to the black wire headed toward the blower switch so I could test all three speeds, and they worked as well. I let it run on low for a few minutes to make sure it wouldn't die out on me. All good, so I ordered my parts.

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Greg Donohue was on vacation so I sent off my order for parts to AutoKrafters.
-Part# FM9021 HeaterCore 63-64 Galaxie
-Part# C0AF-18A594-A Air inlet duct Heater Control (this is the seal from the cowl/firewall to the heater box)
-Part# C3AZ-18500-A "Heater box seal kit 61-64 Galaxie"

I also immediately destroyed the glove box liner :p So I ordered one of those too... who would have thought after 51 years, cardboard would be so fragile?
Anyway, so $180 into this already. Add on another $30 for paint and strip caulk and there is the project.

Pulling the box is simple, just a few nuts on the firewall and there ya go.

Took apart everything:

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new gaskets for blower:

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fat ends go upwards toward the blower cage:

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box looks pretty rough now that it is out

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I quickly realized to install most of the seals (which actually didn't exist in my box) I would have to crack it open. first thing was to drill out the rivets:

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There are only three or four rivets to drill out, the rest are bent metal tabs. Bit nerve wracking bending those back without cracking the 51 year old plastic, I got it with no issues tho. There is one screw that holds the whole works together after all the metal tabs are bent back and rivets knocked out:

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more opening the box, taking it all apart and cleaning (there were obviously some animals living in here at some point)

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heater seal kit:

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new heater core:

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I got this paint for stuff like vinyl, carpet, etc and hoped it would be good for the box:

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My old carpeted area behind the rear seat was faded so figured I'd try out the spray paint on it too:

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That worked well.
More painting, cleaning and installing the seals. I used a general automotive spray adhesive, it worked fairly well, but expect 2-3 hours of spraying, installing and holding seals until they'll stick.

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Putting the box back together takes a little while. I used 3M strip caulk to seal it all. Don't just lay it on there, pull it so it stretches, otherwise it'll be so thick it'll be REALLY hard to get the box back together.
I installed a few screws where the old rivets were to hold it all in place and went slowly around with vice grips and channel locks closing up the metal tabs. This is one of those jobs you cannot rush, the old plastic would break very easily if handled harshly.

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and dont' forget that one screw in the center on the sheet metal side... need to reinstall that

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paint paint paint

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I didn't like the smooth look and wanted this box to blend into my carpet. A glossy heater box is cool, but I don't want it to draw too much attention in the interior so I got some wrinkle finish paint, VHT brand. Once again, I freakin love VHT spray paint.

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strip caulk on heater resistor

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for the record, I might be wrong, but my work with a meter and testing out stuff the solid black wire from the heater controls feeds directly into 12V. The Blower has a black and orange wire, the black is a single spade connector that attaches at the resistor, oddly enough the orange wire is for a ground. The rest are just direct current for the three blower speeds. If you do not have this harness, hook the blower to the resistor the orange to a ground and try out the three wires from the switch to the resistor and it'll become obvious after 15 minutes.

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Maybe this all seemed basic stuff, but I take pictures of all of my work, figured I'd post it in case someone was going to do this project but found it too daunting. It is actually very easy, just take your time as 50+ year old stuff is kinda fragile.

Sadly, the heater box to air inlet seal was back ordered, so i couldn't take any pictures of the heater box install, but it's pretty simple, I've done it on many cars... sometimes you just need a 2x4 to hold the box in place while you get a few nuts started on the studs.

hope this helps someone!

Drew
 
#14 ·
That was exceptional. I took the one out in my '59 but didn't tear it all the way down. Had the blower motor out, powered it up and that was good. Pressure checked my core, that was good too.

Nothing is available except for the blower motor gasket and a couple of odd parts. The heater plenum is made of heavy molded cardboard and cracked in places. Gorilla glue to the rescue. I dug out about 10 small mud dawber nests (like a wasp). I used a Jeep flex hose between the plenum and heater box. Made an air inlet gasket from a strip out of an old inner tube.
 
#15 ·
Yeah, I shoulda bumped this to the top (I did on facebook) with winter coming.
The only place I screwed up, is I saw a heater box for sale at the Moultrie Swap meet a week before for $15 and i shoulda bought it to have a spare. As it was a little JB Weld was used to stiffen up some areas of the older box due to tiny cracks forming.