620 heater trick

[Figbuck]

The best thing on a 620 is the heater. When I painted my truck, I pulled the heater out and cleaned out ten pounds of leaves, twigs and acorns. There was so much junk on the heater core that it was a miracle that any air even went through it at all. I had to pull it apart far enough to oil the motor bearing. The motor had been making a shuddering sound and a drop of 3 in one oil made it run quiet and smooth. I scraped all the gasket material off the flapper doors and cut new gasket material out of peel off sticky neoprene foam insulation tape. Then I pulled the inlet valve, cleaned and greased it so the sliders on the dash worked it effortlessly.

 

OK, so the heater is working flawlessly. I want to keep shit out of the plenum for two reasons. #1. I don't want to have little pine or oak leaves getting into the fan and making swishing or clicking sounds... I just want the whirring sound and be able to hear the difference between the two speeds you know? Leaves and crap were driving me crazy for years. #2. When junk accumulates in the plenum, it will block the drain holes and eventually rust through the plenum into the cab. Also if crap is allowed to get into the plenum in the first place, it drains and catches where the bottom of the fender and the cab fasten... first it rusts the bolts so it is a bitch to get the fender off... or else it just rusts the metal around that spot.

 

So here was my first Idea. I went to A craft store and got some aluminum mesh screen used for floral arrangements.

 

 

Then I got some industrial Velco tape and stuck half to the under side of the plenum cowling. I cut the screen to fit. Then used hot melt glue to fasten the opposite side of the velcro to the screen.

 

 

Presto; removable screens. Here I am after I putting the truck back together. I'm so happy, it only took me two years.

 

 

Then I had an unfortunate incident where I failed to secure the hood latch and it blew the hood up and creamed my cherry hood, cowl. windshield wipers. If that wasn't enough. I spent a long weekend prepping and painting another hood and cowl. About six months later the same thing happened again. I was heart broken. I took a hammer to the hood and took off the cowl so I could drive. I drove around for another years with no cowl and one windshield wiper.

 

Finally I was at the P 'n P and saw a pretty nice cowl for twenty bucks. I sanded it off, used PPG metal cleaner and conditioner, primed it with Rustoleum and shot two top coats of Rustoleum Black Satin. I had a different idea about how to make the screen work; use magnetic sign material!

 

 

I cut up a magnetic sign that I got out of a dumpster behind a magnetic sign place and hot melt glued it to the aluminum screen. There is enough magnet to hold it firmly in place.

 

 

Works great. It only took me thirty six years to figure this out.

 

[ggzilla]

Man that is nicely done. I've seen the same thing on Japanese web sites but they are expensive. Yours look just as good.

[skunk]

I like, Iv been wanting to do something like this to our datsuns for some time. just never got around to doing so.

[SpudWhitman]

Great write-up. The only way to keep out pesky pine needles completely would be to weld the cowl shut, but your mesh will really cut down on the number of 'em that make it through. Looks great, too. Now to dumpster dive behind a sign place.

[Jesus_lopez405]

Nice!!

[rAudiOne]

At home depot you can get magnetic sheets for $5. Look in the A/C area where they sell the vents or registers. It's a three-pack of magnetic register covers. I use them for making my class numbers for autocrossing..tape some numbers, spray paint and peel the tape off.

 

I would assume it would work great for this application too

[shoom]

I was thinking you could even get some stainless mesh and braze it on so the sticks n twigs can't get behind the cowl covers