In case anyones intersted. I though this might be a good post to do.

This a freshening up of a non a/c heater box for a 1972 Demon.
Most probably realize they are not hard to do, but can be more time consuming than one may think.
Just to give one an idea, Start to finish was just a click over 7 hours.
So here goes.

The mess I started with

2

Best advice I can give anyone is, take LOTS of pictures . You WILL need them.

Take it all the way down to an empty case. To clean out the 40 years worth of leaves and debris.

next

All the seals on the interior doors just crumbles when touched.

Vent door hinges were frozen and the door was real tough to open or close.
Which caused 2 issues.
1 - a cracked door

2nd - rivets pulled thru the box

But, Not a real bad fix. And I added a piece of sheetmetal to the inside of the box to give it some added strength.

After a breif quick trip thru the glass bead cabinet, I used Seymours stainless steel paint for all the doors and linkages.
Then using one of the gasket kits from DMT.
It starts to go back together.

How did you fix the fiberglass damage?

Once tested, the motor and the vent door were shot with single stage enamel thru an HVLP gun. Sprayed with gloss black , dulled ever so slightly to take the super high gloss off of the finish.

Also, put in a brand new heater core as well. My local jobber actually had one on the shelf

Go over the box itself in the glass bead cabinet to clean it up. Then just go over it with Eastwoods diamond clear to bring the luster back.

That wiring bracket riveted to the case had to be replaced( originally was pretty rusty)

Bent up a simple piece of stainless and just dipped in vinyl coating to regain the original look of the original. Then put back on with the original style tube rivet.

And I had a local print shop make me a stamp to put the assy pt number back on it.

Nice work.

there are several ways to compress them.
I'm lucky, a friend of mine has the tools and I just borrow his.

But the ones I use go in an air hammer - http://www.rivetsinstock.com/rivet-tools/solid-semitubular-rivet-tools.html

Great stuff Bill! I have my T/A's heater box stored away upstairs awaiting restoration, and after reading your thread, I am tempted to dig it out and using your info, try to restore it myself.

Brad,
give it a try. what do you have to lose.

I have a 1969 B-body A/C box on the table right now. They look more intimidatiing than they really are.
Considerably more complicated than this non a/c A-body box. But so far it's not to bad.
I have to get the heater core - recored and the evaporator ck'd out while I have it apart.

My best advise - take LOTS of before and during pictures. Believe me, you'll need them.