The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Interiors Seatbelts, Heaters and Vent Windows

Now that the weather’s getting nicer and I’m starting to get motivated on restoring my ’53 3100 again I have a couple of questions. Maybe this should be about three different postings, but I’m going to try to lump them all together.

I’ve noticed that a lot of the parts catalogs for this truck list a part called a “Roll Pan”. What’s a roll pan? Did my truck originally have one or is it an add-on? Is it used instead of the rear bumper of do you need both? The picture in the catalog doesn’t look like anything I took off of the truck when I disassembled the truck bed. Of course it may have been removed by a previous owner and I just don’t know what it is.

Seat belts -- I've read the threads on these (both lap and 3 point belts) and just thought I’d ask if anyone had any more recent information, pictures or advice from an installation that they might have done on this model truck.

While disassembling the doors in the basement over the winter I destroyed the passenger’s side vent window pivot stud. You know, the threaded stud that extends down from the vent window frame that holds the glass. I was more careful on the driver’s side and that one turned out alright. Anyone had any experience replacing this stud or know if this part is available anywhere? I would expect that this piece may have been used on a lot of GM vehicles so a non-truck part source would probably work if I can get some cross-reference numbers.

For anyone doing this in the future, don’t try to unscrew the nut on the end of the pivot stud. After you get the window frame out of the door, use a “nut cracker” to cut off the nut and then replace the nut with a new one.

Finally, I need to find a heater flow valve. My truck didn’t have one when I purchased it. The heater hoses went directly from the water pump to the heater. This means that the heater was on “high” all of the time with no way to stop the flow of hot antifreeze. I checked the StoveBolt swap meet page, but none were listed. This seems to be a particularly difficult to find part. I’ll post a “wanted” ad, but wanted to find out if anyone knew of a source for this part first. Is it possible to use the valve from another GM vehicle on the 3100?

A heater valve just sold on eBay tonight for $42.50. You can also find rebuildable ones at swap meets if you look hard enough. I bought two deluxe heaters (one '47-'53, one '54-'55.1) and a decent valve at a swap meet a few years back for about $30.

It also depends on the heater - if you don't have the Deluxe "fresh air" heater, I don't think there is supposed to be a valve, except for a shutoff in the engine bay. Only the fancy heaters had anything more than a fan control.

I got a vent window pivot stud from a donor door I bought. Drill out the rivots and intall using new rivots. I did the same thing, broke the darn thing.

My heater did not have a heat control valve, as mentioned above, there is a cutoff in the engine bay in line with the heater feed hose. I only need to adjust twice a year, so this setup works fine for me.

My original cutoff was brass and leaked, so I replaced it with a modern alternative from Auto Zone.

I've seen heater control valves for sale on eBay, they appear to fetch a hefty price!

A lot of Mopars used an inline valve for the heater hose. They're cheap and everybody carries them.
Scott

I got an original heater control valve from a semi-local shop here in Denver that needed to be rebuily for $20. The valve mounts on the rectangular hole just above and to the right of the heater motor, in the engine area, as seen when looking at the truck from the front. The control rod that bolts to the underside of the dash controls the valve, he got me for an extra 5 bucks for that. If you get ahold of one of the valves, you can order the rubber diaphram that is needed to rebuild it from Chevy Duty($15) or most of the suppliers, but it comes in a NAPA bag, and you can get it from NAPA for $8 or so. I don't have the part # handy, let me know if you need it.

If you aren't concerned with originality, just get a ball valve with some connectors and cut the hose that leaves the motor, insert the valve, and you've got a shut off.

Good luck!