Can this heater box be repaired?

[trn]

First time poster here.

Here's a close-up of the heater box I just took out of my car:

Is it possible to restore it, or should I be looking for new ones? I'm thinking of rewelding the gaps, brushing away the rust, and painting over with exhaust manifold paint (like from Hirsch http://www.hirschauto.com/departments.asp?dept=13 or POR-15
http://www.por15.com/products.asp?dept=8).
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1971 Bug in restoration: http://vw-restoration.blogspot.com

[minskbeetle]

That doesn't look too bad. Here's a thread on resto:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=207619&highlight=

I had mine sandblasted, then cleaned with alcohol and primed, and painted with high temp paint from a rattle can. They look great, getting ready to hook them up to my rebuilt engine here in a day or two. Mine looked like crub when I started, but after sandblasting, came out looking almost new.
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72 Super - in pieces
72 Super #2 - awaiting a heart transplant
03 Subie Baja - who doesn't like another boxer motor?

[trn]

Ahhh, missed that thread. Thanks.

What about closing up the gaps between the exhaust manifold and the outside of the heat exchanger. Should I weld them, or leave them alone?
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1971 Bug in restoration: http://vw-restoration.blogspot.com

[Russ Wolfe]

[jzjames]

take some sheet metal and cut patches into shapes that will cover those gaps (semicircular cuts) and leave enough space on the patch to pop rivet into the shell of the heater box. If you can fabricate this, you can get some good use out of those heater boxes. The heater boxes when new did not have airtight seals at those spots.
A tip if you try this is when you get your patch cut to the shape you want, and will serve the purpose of covering those gaps, dry fit them and mark the points where you want to put the pop rivets. Then drill the 1/8" holes into the patches on a board or something so that when you hold the patch on to drill into the heater box, you will only have one layer of metal to drill through and it will be easier. Once you get the first hole drilled through the heater box, put on a rivet, then do the other holes.
It worked for me.