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Wildthings
Samba Member
Joined: March 13, 2005
Posts: 52507
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 Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2025 5:04 pm Post subject: Stainless Steel Heater Box Shells |
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| Has anyone ever heard of stainless steel heater box shells for either a Type 1 or a Type 4? Seems there might be a demand for such. |
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mikedjames
Samba Member
Joined: July 02, 2012
Posts: 3368
Location: Hamble, Hampshire, UK
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| Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2025 8:54 am Post subject: Re: Stainless Steel Heater Box Shells |
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It used to be that Ikea sold medicine cabinets that were made of 0.5mm stainless steel. Would have been ideal. I cut one up to make an air scoop for an oil cooler.
The last time I saw the same Ikea design it was stainless steel foil on fibreboard..
Maybe theres a use for Cybertruck panels that fall off...
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Engine 1: 40k miles (rocker shaft clip fell off), Engine 2: 30k miles (rebuild, dropped valve). Engine 3: a JK Preservation Parts "new" engine, aluminium case: 26k miles: new top end.
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raygreenwood
Samba Member
Joined: November 24, 2008
Posts: 23236
Location: Oklahoma City
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| Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2025 8:59 am Post subject: Re: Stainless Steel Heater Box Shells |
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| Wildthings wrote: |
| Has anyone ever heard of stainless steel heater box shells for either a Type 1 or a Type 4? Seems there might be a demand for such. |
There was q thread a while back where someone had found a stainless heat exchanger...type 4 I think.
Ray |
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SGKent 
Samba Member
Joined: October 30, 2007
Posts: 42807
Location: at the beach
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| Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2025 12:14 pm Post subject: Re: Stainless Steel Heater Box Shells |
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make a die and have some stamped. Maybe you will break even, maybe not. The simplest solution is to see if Dansk would market the shells separately that they use to make replacement heat exchangers.
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Opossum
Samba Member
Joined: February 26, 2005
Posts: 761
Location: Islets of Langerhans
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| Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2025 12:13 pm Post subject: Re: Stainless Steel Heater Box Shells |
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Maybe this would work: https://www.ebay.com/itm/114920757792?epid=1703775...SwS5thCoyh
For a 914 Porsche
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airschooled
Air-Schooled
Joined: April 04, 2012
Posts: 13548
Location: West Coast, USA
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| Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2025 9:01 pm Post subject: Re: Stainless Steel Heater Box Shells |
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I love the thought of the muffler sticking out two feet behind the bus.
That's 61 centimeters for Nigel.
If I was building an absolute race bus, I would run those facing forward and finish off the equal length pipes into a muffler that exits in front of the rear wheels.
Robbie
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Abscate
Samba Member
Joined: October 05, 2014
Posts: 24123
Location: NYC/Upstate/ROW
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| Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2025 3:04 am Post subject: Re: Stainless Steel Heater Box Shells |
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| airschooled wrote: |
I love the thought of the muffler sticking out two feet behind the bus.
That's 61 centimeters for Nigel.
If I was building an absolute race bus, I would run those facing forward and finish off the equal length pipes into a muffler that exits in front of the rear wheels.
Robbie |
For Nigel…. 
What would MOT think of that, I wonder?
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busdaddy
Samba Member
Joined: February 12, 2004
Posts: 52953
Location: Surrey B.C. Canada, but thinking of Ukraine
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| Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2025 7:52 am Post subject: Re: Stainless Steel Heater Box Shells |
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| airschooled wrote: |
I love the thought of the muffler sticking out two feet behind the bus.
That's 61 centimeters for Nigel.
If I was building an absolute race bus, I would run those facing forward and finish off the equal length pipes into a muffler that exits in front of the rear wheels.
Robbie |
Forward, with chrome side pipes! 
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W1K1
Samba Member
Joined: March 04, 2004
Posts: 5309
Location: Southern AB
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| Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2025 10:12 am Post subject: Re: Stainless Steel Heater Box Shells |
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[quote="busdaddy"]
| airschooled wrote: |
| Opossum wrote: |
If I was building an absolute race bus, I would run those facing forward and finish off the equal length pipes into a muffler that exits in front of the rear wheels.
Robbie |
Forward, with chrome side pipes! |
oh now that brings up the memory of that guy that was making side exit(ahead of the back wheel), backwards headers/exhaust a while back for beetles.... what were they called? 
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67rustavenger
Samba Member
Joined: February 24, 2015
Posts: 11262
Location: Oregon
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| Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2025 10:43 am Post subject: Re: Stainless Steel Heater Box Shells |
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[quote="W1K1"]
| busdaddy wrote: |
| airschooled wrote: |
| Opossum wrote: |
If I was building an absolute race bus, I would run those facing forward and finish off the equal length pipes into a muffler that exits in front of the rear wheels.
Robbie |
Forward, with chrome side pipes! |
oh now that brings up the memory of that guy that was making side exit(ahead of the back wheel), backwards headers/exhaust a while back for beetles.... what were they called? |
JC Whitney "Bolt-on Side Pipe Kit" 
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=1055326
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SGKent
Samba Member
Joined: October 30, 2007
Posts: 42807
Location: at the beach
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| Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2025 3:40 pm Post subject: Re: Stainless Steel Heater Box Shells |
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| airschooled wrote: |
I love the thought of the muffler sticking out two feet behind the bus.
That's 61 centimeters for Nigel.
If I was building an absolute race bus, I would run those facing forward and finish off the equal length pipes into a muffler that exits in front of the rear wheels.
Robbie |
 and be DNS'd. The exhaust must exit behind the driver's position and to the opposite side on most race cars. Straight line racing has some classes of old machines that blow exhaust out to either side of the driver in front of him/ (Shirley Muldowney), and classes that allow exhaust straight up or up and out. Hydro boats were the same with the big Merlin and Allison engines sitting in front of the drivers, but some drivers were getting fumigated / intoxicated by misfiring cylinders when burning methanol and nitro methane etc.. You could use those to turn to the passenger side ahead of the rear wheel. I've always thought the python systems look well designed as street systems but no heat, recognizing Mike's original question.
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raygreenwood
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Joined: November 24, 2008
Posts: 23236
Location: Oklahoma City
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| Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2025 4:33 pm Post subject: Re: Stainless Steel Heater Box Shells |
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A long while back I had thought about making a simple, 2 piece concrete cast of the outside shell of the heat exchangers. Then make a male cast of the inside of each side
Then get some 0.010 stainless sheet and load this thing into my 12 ton HF press. I have pressure formed some metal parts over the years but never that crudely.
Then I watched what this guy did with some metal sheets welded together....and connected to a cheap pressure washer. Hydroforming.
https://youtu.be/llhcATrmsBg?si=-FhhB1iV2XtUzEC4
Make the concrete form I mentioned above. Weld together a couple of THIN stainless sheets. Clamp between the two mold halves. Get some 5000 psi ratchet straps and strap the mold together and then hit it with the pressure washer.
If it forms them well enough, trim the welded edges off, roll/fold them with duckbill pliers and rivet it together.
Ray |
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NASkeet
Samba Member
Joined: April 29, 2006
Posts: 3225
Location: South Benfleet, Essex, UK
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| Posted: Yesterday 10:16 am Post subject: Re: Stainless Steel Heater Box Shells |
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| Abscate wrote: |
| airschooled wrote: |
I love the thought of the muffler sticking out two feet behind the bus.
That's 61 centimeters for Nigel.
If I was building an absolute race bus, I would run those facing forward and finish off the equal length pipes into a muffler that exits in front of the rear wheels.
Robbie |
For Nigel….
What would MOT think of that, I wonder? |
Having an exhaust system projecting 2 feet behind a vehicle, would probably be regarded unfavourably at the MOT roadworthiness inspection; if not by traffic police enforcing The Motor Vehicle (Construction & Use) Regulations 1986
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1986/1078/contents
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1986/1078/part/II/chapter/K
Proper scientists, technologists & engineers use millimetres rather than centimetres, which would normally be the preserve of laypeople or plebians. One could conceivably use decimetres, but I have yet to encounter any examples of their use.
If we are going to work in S.I. - Systeme Internationale units, then 2 feet would be equivalent to 610 millimetres or 0•610 metres; the convention being to use increments of a 1000x or 1/1000x of the basic unit, such as am - attometres, fm - femtometres, pm - picometres, nm - nanometres, micrometres, mm - millimetres, m - metres, km - kilometres, Mm megametres, Gm - gigametres, Tm - terrametres, etc
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_System_of_Units
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_prefix
VW Type 4 engine, custom heat exchangers & exhaust system
Picture originally featured in:
On the scene, Volksworld, June 2003, Page 14.
Custom heat exchangers & exhaust system for a VW-Porsche 914 engine, transplanted into a split-screen, pre-1968 VW Type 2.
1997~2005, United Kingdom specification, Brazilian VW 1600 Type 2 engine
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Independent tutor (semi-retired) of mathematics, physics, technology & engineering for secondary, tertiary, further & higher education.
Much modified, RHD 1973 VW "1600" Type 2 Westfalia Continental campervan, with the World's only decent, cross-over-arm, SWF pantograph rear-window wiper
Onetime member, plus former Technical Editor & Editor of Transporter Talk magazine
Volkswagen Type 2 Owners' Club (Great Britain)
https://vwt2oc.co.uk |
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orwell84
Samba Member
Joined: May 14, 2007
Posts: 2786
Location: Plattsburgh, New York
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| Posted: Yesterday 1:43 pm Post subject: Re: Stainless Steel Heater Box Shells |
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| Abscate wrote: |
| airschooled wrote: |
I love the thought of the muffler sticking out two feet behind the bus.
That's 61 centimeters for Nigel.
If I was building an absolute race bus, I would run those facing forward and finish off the equal length pipes into a muffler that exits in front of the rear wheels.
Robbie |
For Nigel….
What would MOT think of that, I wonder? |
As expected, the MOT would not be amused. Not in the slightest. In fact, they would flip their powdered wigs if you pulled that shit. |
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NASkeet
Samba Member
Joined: April 29, 2006
Posts: 3225
Location: South Benfleet, Essex, UK
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| Posted: Today 11:45 am Post subject: Re: Stainless Steel Heater Box Shells |
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| airschooled wrote: |
I love the thought of the muffler sticking out two feet behind the bus.
That's 61 centimeters for Nigel.
If I was building an absolute race bus, I would run those facing forward and finish off the equal length pipes into a muffler that exits in front of the rear wheels.
Robbie |
What many Americans forget, is that many if not all of we older Britains were brought up with the full spectrum of Imperial measurements, of which length measurements are just one, ranging from barleycorns to leagues. These are the ones with which I have long been acquainted, but there might be a few more!
barleycorns
inches (3 barleycorns)
palms (3 inches)
hands (4 inches | commonly used in the equestrian world, in which I participated as a youth)
feet (12 inches, 4 palms & 3 hands)
cubits (1½ feet = 18 inches)
yards (3 feet)
fathoms (6 feet)
rod, pole & perch (5½ yards)
chains (22 yards - length of a cricket pitch)
furlongs (220 yards)
cable (1/10 nautical mile)
miles [statute] (1760 yards & 5,280 feet)
miles [nautical] (6,080 feet)
leagues (3 nautical miles)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_units
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_units#Length
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_(unit)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_(unit)
I conveniently remember the acre as equivalent to a rectangle of dimensions 1 chain x 1 furlong
The origin of the mile, is 1.000 double-stride lengths of soldiers in the Roman legions; recalling that in present-day ENGLISH, millennium is 1,000 years and mille is the French word for 1,000.
Strangely, those Americans who still cling to Imperial units, seem to use only a small subset of those units, as indicated by weighing cars & aircraft solely in pounds, rather than hundredweights and long-tons.
I also recall the pre-decimal British currency system of pounds, shillings, pounds & guineas.
1 guinea = 21 shillings
1 pound = 20 shillings = 240 pence / pennies
1 crown = 5 shillings
1 double-florin = 4 shillings
½ crown = 2½ shillings
1 florin = 2 shillings
1 shilling = 12 pence / pennies
1 sixpence = 6 pennies
1 thu'pence / threepence = 3 pennies
1 penny = 2 half-pennies = 4 farthings
I was born during the last mintage-year of the farthing
There have also been two-penny, four-penny, half-farthing, third-farthing (exclusive to Malta) and quarter-farthing coins.
Even during the later years of the British Empire, British West Africa had tenth-penny coins (i.e. 1 pound = 2,400 tenth-pennies), of which I have a few examples in my coin-collection of the British Commonwealth, Colonies, Protectorates & Mandates (encompassed circa one quarter of the World's population); which includes some of King Edward VIII.
https://onlinecoin.club/Coins/Country/British_West_Africa/One_tenth_Penny_1939/
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Regards.
Nigel A. Skeet
Independent tutor (semi-retired) of mathematics, physics, technology & engineering for secondary, tertiary, further & higher education.
Much modified, RHD 1973 VW "1600" Type 2 Westfalia Continental campervan, with the World's only decent, cross-over-arm, SWF pantograph rear-window wiper
Onetime member, plus former Technical Editor & Editor of Transporter Talk magazine
Volkswagen Type 2 Owners' Club (Great Britain)
https://vwt2oc.co.uk |
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Wildthings
Samba Member
Joined: March 13, 2005
Posts: 52507
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| Posted: Today 1:06 pm Post subject: Re: Stainless Steel Heater Box Shells |
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| "Feedings" is my favorite units, the distance a horse, oxen, etc could go before it needed to be fed, which of course is affected by many variables. It would have been an important unit for the American West where distances were huge, travel dangerous, and the lack of forage, water, and shelter for draft animals life threatening. |
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