The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Restoring 1950 Fresh Air Heater Name Plate and Decal Question

Working on my truck and restoring the fresh air heater. It is a 1950 3100. I am following a great guide I found here:
http://devestechnet.com/Home/HeaterRestore

My first question is what is the correct name plate for my heater as I see different ones and not sure which goes with my truck/heater originally? Here is the name plate currently on my heater:
http://cliparts.co/cliparts/Aib/G56/AibG56bi4.jpg

My next question is I see these decals as well and I am not sure where they go and which color is closest to original?
https://www.classicparts.com/1947-54-Defroster-Instruction-Decal/productinfo/68-555/
https://www.chevsofthe40s.com/detail/2479/Chevrolet_Heater_Decal_OnOff_Defroster_On_Heater.html

Jason, I bought a fresh air heater from 1951Chevy1ton last year, (and he was more than fair, very good guy), all original, was everything he said it was, and the plate that came on it is the exact same one you have in your picture. I would venture to say there were several versions used back then, as there were several suppliers of heaters back then. Somebody that has fooled with more of these than me will chime in and set us straight.

What I bought, if I remember correctly, he said came out of a 1953, I put it in my 51, it fit, I'm happy.

And the defroster decal will probably be the same as the plate. I bought the white letter one from Classic, cause my heater is dark colored. What came originally, I'm not sure. Or if the trucks even had that originally.

Tim Lederman or Brad Allen have a huge amount of documentation on these trucks, but I'll bet either one will know for sure.

I suppose it depends on just how original you want to keep it. 99 out of 100 that will ever see it, wouldn't know.

Here are some old threads on the 47-55 deluxe heaters.
The controls and heater cover/box changed in 1953 - that is described in links below.
Different names were used in different years - that is given links below..

https://www.stovebolt.com/ubbthread...true/re-fresh-air-heater.html#Post552493

https://www.stovebolt.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/1087536/ea-deluxe-heater.html

https://www.stovebolt.com/ubbthread...o-heater-control-valves.html#Post1130678

Thanks for the links. Much appreciated. I still have not seen that decal on my type of heater.

Jason,
If you look closely at the Classic Parts and Chevs of the 40s links you provided you will see that the decals are for multiple years. The only decal that pertains to your 1950 vehicle with the Fresh Air Heater is the small "Defroster" decal and it does not go on the heater assembly itself, but rather on the defroster cable mount under the dash to the left of the steering wheel. I believe the letters are white which is the proper color. The decal application will not include the colored background. Hope this helps,
Kent

You are absolutely right and now it all makes sense. Thanks so much to you and everyone that posted on this!

my fresh air badge on my 1950 suburban looks just like the one you have pictured.

Any way to restore those to look new again or just buy a new one?

The second line in your first post answers your question.
http://devestechnet.com/Home/HeaterRestore

I was referring to the name plate badge.

Not sure if anyone following this thread has restored their heater, but the guide I linked to calls for a quantity of 30, #6 x 3/8 inch pan head sheet metal screws. My local big box only carries them in #6 x 1/2 (60 of them in stainless for ~$4). Do you think that difference will be noticeable? Getting the correct sized ones online ends up costing me ~$20 with shipping (which is highway robbery considering they will fit in an envelope and cost 2 stamps to mail. Thinking the difference will be negligible and I have them in my hand today.

Do you have a local Fastenal store? They might just have what you need.🛠

The longer ones will protrude 1/8 inch more into the interior of the heater and that won't matter one bit (at least to me). If you are designing a heater from scratch, you may not want the longer screws picking up dust but for normal use it won't matter and you can't see into the interior once installed.

Kent

Thanks for the replies. That is what I was thinking.

@Justhorsenround - The local Fastenal store is about 25-30 min away, and based on what I see online from others, my local store must be the exception. I swear every time I have been there they act like I am bothering them and they have no interest in helping since I am not a commercial account so I tend to avoid them which is a shame.

Same problem with Fastenal here, but, they will sell to you. They have a sign on the door stating they don’t have consumer quantities but I have found if you push the issue they will sell. I just use a fake company name and let them look it up. When they tell me that company doesn’t have an account l just tell them I will pay cash and get reimbursed later. They’re happy and so am I.🛠

.....do you have Ace Hardware close by? Maybe I'm lucky but I live "in the middle of two" that carry a pretty dang big line of nuts/bolts/screws.


....in a hurry for them? Heck, I can stop in G'ville tomorrow and pick some up?!

Does this help?

Heater Badge

Thanks! I am going to try to hit Ace on the way home from work today and see what they got. I will keep you posted!

Thanks. I actually just ordered one of them from classic that should be here tomorrow.

Turns out Home Depot carries the screws in 3/8, where Lowes only goes down to 1/2 long, so I got that taken care of today. Also got the heater apart and started blasting it. Man it looks like it cleaned up great. The only part that doesn't look brand new is little bit of pitting by the heater hose connections. I ordered a new 12v motor to try to retrofit it and the new name badge actually came in the mail today as well. I will post a picture when it is all done. Thanks for everyone's help and advice!