Heater muffler?

[rusty57]

So, today while working on the bus electrical system, i decided to look underneat and see how difficult it would be to install parking brake and heat. Well, i've never had a passenger bus with heat in the rear. My previous panel bus had the heater boxes connected to two inlets that went to the front vents. Looked just like a bugs heat system somewhat. Well, as i followed the heat tube, i thought someone cut and welded the left side. Jay, a friend of mine that was actually doing the electricals,thanks Jay, told me that it's supposed to be like that. Well, obviously i'm missing the pieces that go from the heater box to the tube inlet for the rear passenger area heat. He mentioned that i can conect any kind of tubing, but it originally had some sort of noise muffler. Any one know where i can get one of these. Or a picture of what it looks like?Thanks in advance.
_________________
67 Ghia coupe, Retired military.
www.TagDefender.com

[TimGud]

Post a wanted ad in the classifieds.Somebody will have them. If nobody else posts a pic before tomorrow I will take a pic of one for you.

[Friedpotatoes]

that should be what you need.

im shocked how much that oil/dirt kept up that paint.
_________________
56- Wolfsburg Single Cab
57- Oval Window Bug (Agave Green)

[Friedpotatoes]

bugs had the same concept but there's were a plastic accordion shape.
_________________
56- Wolfsburg Single Cab
57- Oval Window Bug (Agave Green)

[Buckly]

The bus heatfliter thing uses a flexible metal tube to finish the connection.
_________________
Cool runnins,
_______________________
Bucky

[rusty57]

I put a wanted ad on the classifieds. Hopefully someone will have one. Anybody want to trade something from a 66 standard walk through for one of those things?
_________________
67 Ghia coupe, Retired military.
www.TagDefender.com

[type2much]

I have an extra or two if you'd want to trade something. they are just the muffler parts like in the picture above, you would still need the other flexible pieces to finish the connection.

[swervyjoe]

i have one, but need the other.

[rusty57]

Ok. I have a 66 standard walk through(og paint) with lots of parts on it. What do you want to trade? I have misce. engine parts, single/dual port and other odds and ends. I have 14 inch portawalls (used only 3 days). Some VW toys etc....
_________________
67 Ghia coupe, Retired military.
www.TagDefender.com

[Spitty1974]

After speaking with a few people in this community, all suggested I do not try to rebuild my heater baffles.

That said, I'm doing it. I saw what the long heater tube looked like in my bus before cleaning, and these baffles were really dirty and filled with nastiness, and rusty. Although I won't use the heater much, I didn't want to be pumping all that nastiness into the bus. The material inside the baffle was disgusting and I have no desire to breathe any of it in.

After further examination, I could see there are spot welded together. I marked them and drilled out the spot welds.

The material inside was full of dirt, and who knows what else. Here it is out of the tube.

Here is the inside of the tube showing some surface rust.

Here are the spot welds drilled out.

Here it is opened up. I only drilled one side, I figured I could replace the material easily along with the steel mesh by just opening one side. It worked fine. I'll probably go back and add a few plug welds on the other side just to make sure all is secure.

Here it is after a quick blast in the cabinet. I'm going to go back and hit it again after I fit the material and mesh back into it. Once I get that fitted, I'll remove it, give it a quick blasting and paint the inside, then use weldable primer along the edges where I need to plug weld back together.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a material to use behind the steel mesh? I want to put something back in there, obviously it had a purpose. I just don't know what to use.

Thank you for any suggestions

[BonTonRoulet]

[velvetgreen]

I used repro heater baffles which appear to use fibreglass insulation https://www.cip1.ca/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=VWC%2D113%2D255%2D355%2DD.

I was never was clear what the original insulation was, it almost looked like something nasty like aesbestos? hard to tell as they were/are usually caked with oil/dirt etc.

[Spitty1974]

Thanks for the suggestions. Yeah, I made sure to wear a respirator when Taking the old material out. It almost looked like fiberglass insulation. I didn’t investigate too much. It literally fell apart, material all degrading with
Little structural integrity.

I think I may use some recycled cotton insulation, possibly recycled denim. I’ve read it’s not toxic, no fibers, and has good sound dampening qualities. I’m sure it would also help to retain some heat as warm air passes through it.

I looked around here and online I couldn’t seem to find anyone who documented a rebuild. Surely someone out there has done a rebuild of them?

[velvetgreen]

a good idea when removing questionable airborne materials is to wet it prior to removal. Sure keeps it a lot less airborne. I agree a respirator would also be a good idea. I am sure someone has rebuilt them although not perhaps to the degree that you are!

[Help Help]

Doe anyone have any tricks of reassembling this and the other metal sleeve *while the engine is in place*? Neither this piece or the other metal sleeve are flexible enough to put these two fixed length pieces in the smaller fixed length between the heater box and the body.

I picked up some plastic flexible bug heater tubes to cut down and get around this problem but have not gotten the ginsu out just yet.

[Spitty1974]

I don't have any tips. I took apart the second one today, and it was much easier. The first go around was new, the second one was much easier and cleaner after doing it once.

This time, after drilling out the spot welds I could find, I went back and used the Dremel with a cut off blade and was able to get in between the two pieces and cut any weld area not drilled out. This one came apart really easy.

Dremel action

Spot welds drilled out

Used a C-Clamp to hold one half of the tube, placed in a vise so I could pry it apart, worked like a charm.

The insulation material is wrapped with burlap and tied in place to hold it all together.

Here is a picture of the insulation and burlap together. This one I wanted to keep intact so I can duplicate with the new materials. The first one I ripped out and it got mangled. This one, I waited until it was opened up to remove.

Here is a picture of it opened up, still need to media blast it and put primer on it.

I ordered some stainless steel mesh and some insulation made of recycled denim/cotton. It's a greener insulation than fiberglass and also acts as sound deadening. Both coming from Amazon. I will update as I progress with the rebuild.

The old insulation almost appears to be some type of fabric material, but maybe it has fiberglass in it. I didn't investigate it much, and don't plan to mess around with it and get any fibers airborne.

[Spitty1974]

Ok folks, I'm finally getting around to documenting the rest of this heater build. I always have good intentions of finishing up any threads I add to, or work Ive done, but then life happens...

Anyway, here are the mufflers after media blasting.

I sprayed them with some Etch Primer.

Then, I hit the insides with some gray paint that is close to the factory gray primer color. Just wanted something over the etch primer on the inside. They were originally just raw metal and a bit rusted on the inside when I opened them.

I have found that this Krylon was a decent match to the factory primer, but just a gloss finish.

I found some recycled denim insulation that I decided to use to replace the old insulation, it looked similar and was the same thickness.

I also found some stainless steal mesh that was similar to the original, except it is stainless instead of regular steel.

The old and the two new pieces of insulation I cut to use inside the mufflers.

The old and the new burlap that I cut that goes around the insulation inside the mufflers.

The old and new mesh cylinders I formed out fo stainless mesh.

All the new stuff ready to be installed prior to welding them back up.

Two pictures of the new mesh cylinders with the new insulation and burlap all tied up and ready to go into the mufflers. Originally, there were some metal pins threaded to hold it together. I opted to just tie them up with some twine to hold them together. Once inside and welded up, they aren't going to unfold.

Here is a picture of the inside pressing. The actual metal mesh sphere needs to fit right up to this. So, there is almost a little recession there to hold in place there.

A few pics welding them back up. The metal ended up getting holes on both sides when I drilled them out. So, when I welded it back up, I backed it with copper and filled them in. Here are a few pictures of the welding process. There were some areas where I had to build the welds up heavily where there was no metal left from the separation...Then I went back and shaped the flange areas where it was missing metal after drilling and separating the two pieces to looks as original as possible. As mentioned previously, the first one I took apart was a little rough, the second one came apart much more cleanly.

Here are a few pictures of them with some primer on them before I top coated them with the Smoke Gray.

Here is a picture of them painted up with the Krylon Smoke Gray and ready for installation.

It was fun to challenge myself to rebuild these. I had never seen a thread on how to do this, so I decided to tackle it. I'm glad I did, I learned a thing or two in the process and I'm happy with the end result.

[campingbox]

Good job Paul.

[mdege]

excellent job!
_________________
- Michael

1965 21F: Restoration of a former '65 firetruck
1963 Typ3 Notchback project
1988 Multivan Magnum 112i
1984 Standard: My son wanted a bug for his first car

[EverettB]

Very cool, I made sure this thread in the Bus FAQ as a reference.
_________________
How to Post Photos
Everett Barnes - [email protected] | My wanted ads
"Water is the only drink for a wise man" | "Communication prevents complaints"
Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!