The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk 1940 heater box

hi, does anyone know what the heater box for a 40 should look like? on ebay several are for sale all claiming to be from a 40 chev p-up but they all are of different design. were there different vendors? my truck never had a heater so i don't know thanks wahoo40

I believe there were different vendors for heaters. I bought the heater for my 38 coupe from a fellow that restores them to original. He's not cheap but I'm very happy with his work. He may or may not know about your truck. His e-mail is [email protected] (I haven't tried for a while I assume it's still good) his name is Roger Kaster.

Wahoo funny thing when I took my 40 burb apart it had three heaters. None of them look stock, I just thought the heaters were an aftermarket or dealer op. Anyway I had one heater under the drivers seat, small pancake thing, one heater above the steering column, little tiny thing about 6 inches diameter,only blew hot air to drivers side winsheild, and one heater by passenger fire wall, just blowing air into the front part of burb, the right side defroster wasn't hooked up, but the dash has the vents for it. under the hood looked like a plumbing nightmare. heater hose running over the engine and up and down both inner fenders. Guy that might know is Barry Weeks. I looked in the owners manuel and service manuel and they don't even mention a heater. Weird

jbennett
40 burb

This is listed as having been removed from a 40 pickup.

Here is the heater in my 1940 Chevy 1 1/2 ton 12,000 mile retired firetruck / S10 pickup conversion. 40ChevyS10 Frame Swap

Here is the heater from my 40 1 1/2 ton

I believe that this is the original heater.

The original Chevrolet heaters from the '30's and '40's were made by Harrison Radiator, and were installed by the dealers and not at the factory. The knockouts were stamped in the firewall at the factory, but the heaters were installed later at the dealer if the customer wanted one. Many times, the customer would buy the truck without any options, and then return to the dealer in a year or two when it was paid for to get the extras. In the pic InMy40s linked to, this is a 1941 Chev. Deluxe heater in a 1940 truck. May have been that the truck was not sold until 1941 also, and that's why it ended up with a '41 heater. That's what the dealer would've had on the shelf in 1941.

S10's pic with the angled doors is a correct 1940 Chev. Deluxe heater. 1940 heaters had the angled vent doors. Earlier and later heaters have straight (horizontal) doors. Chevrolet heaters in the late '30's/early '40's came in Deluxe and Super Deluxe versions. The Super Deluxe was slightly larger (more heating capacity) and had fancier trim. It also cost more. Both heaters were available with an optional defroster blower mounted on top to blow warm air to the windshield defroster vents in the dash. If your heater does not have the defroster blower mounted on top, it will have a block off plate held on with 2 screws where you can easily add one.

Tiny's heater pic may have been taken from a '40 truck, but is actually a universal Chevrolet heater that dealers sold in the later '40's. I have seen those in '48-'49 AD trucks before. Also, many companies made aftermarket heaters in the '30's and '40's. If it doesn't have a Chevrolet emblem on the front, a Harrison tag on the back, and the pipes don't fit the factory knockout holes, it's not an original Chevrolet heater for your truck.

Pics of original 1940 heaters, defrosters and other cool stuff won't be found anywhere other than the 1940 Accessories Book. These are small catalogs, maybe 30 pages long or so, that show all the accessories and options available from the dealer each year for cars and trucks. Reprints are often found on ebay or from dealers (Carter's maybe?) for $10-$15, and are tons of fun to look at.

Almost forgot, Roger that Tiny mentioned, does a very good job on the heaters he fixes up. He has sold many restored Chevrolet heaters on ebay under the seller name of "Casseltait". Plan on spending $200-$300 for a restored Chevrolet heater.

Otherwise a heater is an easy restoration project if you find a solid one to begin with that isn't all rusted out. Basically a heater consists of a 2-piece sheetmetal housing with vent doors on the front, a small heater core (radiator) for the hot water to run through, and a small round blower motor to spin the fan blade and blow the air across the heater core. The blower motor gets wired to a switch under the dash to turn the heater fan on and off. The heater hoses usually contain a shut-off valve to turn the water flow off in the summer when the heater isn't used. This valve would commonly be installed at the water pump where the heater supply hose is connected.

thanks for all the info,it really helps to know what to look for rather just buying something and hoping it's right. wahoo40