Calling All Electricians, Bootleggers and "fabricators"

[monte olrac]

So here's my delima, I love the look off an engine bay without the the a/c box. I also would like to free up some room back there for a msd box too. But I like to have heat in the winter on those occasions I do drive, I was looking at this electric heater and i was wondering if it was possible to hook this up and have it run off the factory a/c controls, I would just like to use it using the fan control instead of having a switch intalled, tell me what you think.

here's the link to the heater http://www.sportsimportsltd.com/usa-made-12-volt-ducted-heater.html

 

[LSCustoms]

So here's my delima, I love the look off an engine bay without the the a/c box. I also would like to free up some room back there for a msd box too. But I like to have heat in the winter on those occasions I do drive, I was looking at this electric heater and i was wondering if it was possible to hook this up and have it run off the factory a/c controls, I would just like to use it using the fan control instead of having a switch intalled, tell me what you think.

here's the link to the heater http://www.sportsimportsltd.com/usa-made-12-volt-ducted-heater.html

It may turn it on, but I dont know about controlling the heaters variable speed and high low temp setting... i would just make a panel to replace the factory controls and put their controls there, I couldnt find a picture of the control panel for the heater, did you?

thats a great find! wish they had an ac one like that...lol

 

[FE3X CLONE]

Should be completely possible.

I had my factory controls modified to run my aftermarket evaporator/heater. They essentially installed micro switches to the back side of the controls that activate the various functions of the HVAC system.

Here's a picture of my controls:

 

[85GPLef41]

i haven't seen that set up before BUT i was considering this one:
http://www.webasto.us/general/en/html/8243.html
we have those heaters on on most of our heavy equipment at work and i must say it's nice to get in a truck that has been parked for a while and get in a warm cabin, also our Webasto heaters are hooked inline with the hydraulic tanks to keep everything nice and warm. They also have a timer to turn on automatically an i'm sure they they can be modified to fit in any ride,BTW they do provide some serious heat!! but the ones you posted are WAY cheaper..

 

[monte olrac]

so my next question is, how hard is it to fab some ducts to the defrost, I never worked with the climate system so i have no idea. I know i can make some brackets to hold the unit, also with the a/c box gone how much room do you have under the dash?

 

[RITTER]

We offer nice cab heaters that range from 13,000 - 65,000 B.T.U. and you can get heat duct hose kits to connect to them as well. The part numbers:
BK #745-1048 13,000 B.T.U.
BK #745-1043 15,000 B.T.U.
BK #745-1042 40,000 B.T.U.
BK #745-1044 65,000 B.T.U.

 

[FE3X CLONE]

so my next question is, how hard is it to fab some ducts to the defrost, I never worked with the climate system so i have no idea. I know i can make some brackets to hold the unit, also with the a/c box gone how much room do you have under the dash?

On my '87 I actually took some small exhaust tubing and bent it to the shape that I wanted. I then used an epoxy glue made for plastic and glued the metal tubing to the stock plastic ducts. The epoxy was the type that has two parts, both are in one log and you cut off however much you need and the start kneading it together. You have about 5 minutes to work with it before the stuff sets up. Once it's set you can drill, tap, sand or whatever else you need to do to it.

Of course this meant hacking apart a stock HVAC "lung" but it allowed me to keep the defrost ducts and their mounting location where they were originally.

 

[cashmoneyspeed]

So here's my delima, I love the look off an engine bay without the the a/c box. I also would like to free up some room back there for a msd box too. But I like to have heat in the winter on those occasions I do drive, I was looking at this electric heater and i was wondering if it was possible to hook this up and have it run off the factory a/c controls, I would just like to use it using the fan control instead of having a switch intalled, tell me what you think.

here's the link to the heater http://www.sportsimportsltd.com/usa-made-12-volt-ducted-heater.html

Very interesting. I shaved my firewall and got rid of the heater and a/c controls and have been looking for something like this just in case i need heat. My only concern is how much power it uses and how "hot" the unit itself gets. There's a ton of room up under the dash with the box and everything related gone so i'm sure this unit could be mounted and piped into the existing duct work farily easy.