Defrost: lets see some unique solutions that work.

[DrDarby]

My new to me '62 is pretty rust free however the front end of the heater tubes must be rotted from a lifetime of leaks. I really don't want to cut up the car to fix them as it is a daily driver. I have a few things on mind for heat & defrost but wanted to see some other's ideas.

My 1st thought is pipe the passenger side heat up through some flat tubing I have and pipe it into a Type 2 blower in the trunk and each hose off the blower to defrost. I'll be able to hide most of this except the the blower in the trunk.

I don't have time this winter to put channels in the car and hate to cut it up anyway as both inner & outer channels are perfect, just heat tube needs help.

The car is a 62 on a 65 chassis and is slated to be my daily driver unless there is slop on the roads from snow so some mods will not be unlawful to my purist self!
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Midwest Autosavers, Inc. Woodstock, IL

[KTPhil]

Can you use a mirror and flashlight to see what the bottom of the "bermuda triangle" (inner fender area) looks like? Some have jammed a stiff PVC pipe down there to mate with the heater channel outlet.

[glutamodo]

Bermuda triangle, funny. I always just called it the black hole, myself. The black hole with spikes, if the carpet nails are still present! I've got myself pretty good on those.

Like Phil, I wonder if the lower end of the hose just rotted away and piled up, plugging it off. I've seen that before. I'd try removing your existing how, then digging down in there with a "claw pickup tool", extended magnet, and a shop-vac (empty the can first, you never know what "goodies" you might suck up - you probably will end up with a couple of the knurled nuts that hold the wiring cover on. I think I found three in one car once, but two of them were too gnarly to salvage. ) On my first baja, I had to do that, and I got some new flexible hose somewhere (don't remember where now) that was the same size as the stock, and managed to get it down there after I'd cleaned it up good. I think I took the hood and hood hinges off so I'd have better access and sight. Also, there's that small round access hole inside the car under the carpet down there.

-Andy

[drscope]

Putting an electiric blower in under the rear seat is one of the best modifications I ever made to a daily driver VW. You can buy these blowers for about $25 at the boat supply store. They use them as bilge blowers.

They can be installed in a few places and in a few ways. I took the heater mufflers out of the heater channel between the rear and the side of the car under the rear seat. Then plumbed in the blower.

1 on the driver's side really helped. And it gives you a very good defroster. (unusual for a bug) If you put in a blower on each side, you may want to wire them to individual switches! If both are running at the same time, it can roast you out of there!

This may not fix your problem if your channels are rotted away, but it may force enough hot air through the foot outlet to make an improvement. And if you install 2 of these, you will have PLENTY of heat and be able to keep the windshield clear.
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Mother Nature is a Mean Evil Bitch!

[KTPhil]

[DrDarby]

I invented the bilge pump blower modification and have them on everything so getting air into the heater channels is no problem. I've removed both my defrost hoses and am very aware they they are no good after 15 years as they come apart and mine were 47 years old and crudded up solid. There is a flange left and I can get a new hose on but very weak flow out the hose. I've run a wire up the channels so no mouse nests or anything although there was a shop rag jammed in the passenger rear adapter where the 62-63 had the 1.5" hose for the adapter rear foot vents.

I can stick an air hose in the rear pipe with 60# air and only get a weak flow up front. I imagine the forward elbow or "cap" is non existing or the tube is perforated elsewhere.

I'm not opposed to cutting into the car but prefer not to just looking for other's ideas besides the obvious of making the stock system 100%. I simply don't have the time to cut into the car before summer as it is my daily driver.

I guess I should at least cut a window into the black hole and over the heat vent and see what is up.
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Midwest Autosavers, Inc. Woodstock, IL

[Max Welton]

My 63 baja has no tubes running up from the front of the heater channels. Apparently the PO didn't think they would be missed.

This is a 60w (i.e. not much) 12 volt defroster I got at Napa a few years ago. It is afixed to the dash with velcro.

Don't laugh, it works. Got me through the last 5 winters.

Max
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1967 Type-3 Fastback
Under the Knife https://shoptalkforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=151582
Home Stretch https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=767836

[johnnyrotten]

I steal multiple bottles of Rubbing alcohol from work (hospital), fill an old windex bottle, squirt it on the windshield before taking off.



John
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Enemies are friends in reverse..... G. Busey

In the garage....

64 Ghia
66 beetle
56 Oval rag
58 ex-art project Beetle
A fleet of parts buses and ghias

[Rowroy]

[Hotrodvw]

Have any of you guys used the booster fans W/O heat simply for a forced air fan w/ a creative vent for the warm days???
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'67 Sunroof
Eric

78x94 with IDA's....oober fun

Horsepower is an addiction........Addictions cost
lots of money!

Hose & Fittings

[KTPhil]

If defogging is what you need (not defrosting) then a soapy rag, dried and rubbed on the inside, will stop the moisture form forming small drops, and instead form a sheet which does not interfere with your vision so much.

[Yukonblood]

Yep...The boat bilge blower under the driver side rear seat works great....I put hidden toggle switch under the dash for on/off....works great. The little buggers "melt" after awhile and you'll need to replace them. I have done this. I plan on using a small metal squirel cage fan for the next install. BEWARE!!! The heat you'll get is incredible.....also the defrost is excellent

[justin67]

Does anybody have a good pic of the blower plumed and mounted under the rear seat?
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'67 Type 1 sedan, 1641cc
'80 Porsche 928, not stock

[Spezialist]

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[Viande]

[Jody '71]

I've always wondered if this scheme I've been thinking of would be functional. I've got this small hand held Conair 1250 Watt hair dryer that my son's babysitter left over here years ago. With the hair dryer mounted in a convenient place under the hood, it has like a 1 3/4" od opening that you could attach some high temp flex fresh air hose to a "Y," then from there to each defrost hose under the hood. With a 12V to 120V converter and it pre-set to "on" and "low" and hooked up to a toggle switch under the dash, I bet you'd get great defrost whenver you wanted it. This all may sound silly but I bet it would work really good, and would be easily removed if you wanted.
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'66 Beetle
2011 Hyundai Elantra Touring

[glutamodo]

Years ago I thought about trying the hair dryer thing. Never did though - The biggest problem with that is the amount of power it would use. Back then, inverters were very expensive. High wattage ones still aren't cheap, but definately more affordable than they used to be. Still, it comes down to power. First, you'd need a pretty large inverter to run a 1,250 watt hair dryer, I've seen 1250-1500W inverters for sale for around 100 bucks online. You'd need to hook the inverter up with a heavy gauge cable, preferrably a short one, so that would mean mounting it close to the battery. One inverter website I was looking at posted this general formula for determining the DC current draw of an inverter : AC Watts divided by 12 x 1.1 = DC Amps, So for a 1250W hair dryer, that would mean around 114 amps. You'd drain your battery fast at that rate! Even if the "low" setting was half power on the hair dryer, that still well over 50 amps.

[Jody '71]

Yeah, I just got the lowdown with Deathman 68 who is an electrical engineer and said the same thing about the draw. Well, it was just a thought
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'66 Beetle
2011 Hyundai Elantra Touring

[fred69vert]

About a year ago someone posted on here their setup for helping the defroster. They used a pair of 12 volt electric air mattress pumps fitted into the hoses that go to the defrost ducts (in the trunk). I tried this method and while it did increase airflow, it didn't work much better, and the darn air pumps were LOUD!!!! So I took them out. I may put them back, it I can find a way to insulate them and cut down the noise.
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I'm not losing my hair, it's just retired and relocating further south.

1969 VW convertible, "Heidi"

[glutamodo]