Following all the advices that I've got from this very helpful board, I digged deeper and deeper towards firewall - inside my 1970 Challenger (440-sixpack clone without AC). Today I arrived at the heater/defroster box.

Down there everything is in a bad shape. The fan was filled with old leaves and debris and did not move for many years obviously. Radiator leaked. And so on.

I found that it is not too easy to get parts for that box. Radiator is easy but a new blower motor or seals or cardboard stuff seems to be rare...

Is there someone specialized who sells that kind of stuff?

Can someone tell me, why I have this gap between heaterbox and defroster-channels??? What's missing???

Get in touch with 71TA on here, It is James Filmore and he sells the complete kits to rebuild the heater boxes. On the motor and heater core I don't know. I know you can find the heater cores on e-bay all time. Good Luck! Ronnie in Okla.

Jules can restore the heater blower motor to perfection.

Th gap was intentional. As the air blows from the lower duct to the upper duct it pulls cabin air in via that gap to mix the heated air with cabin air.

You may find some of the diagrams at the link below useful as well.

http://www.hamtramck-historical.com/ServiceHighlights/1970PassengerCarHighlights03.shtml

As mentionned above.
excellent gasket kits from 71T/A or Detroit Muscle Tech.
http://detroitmuscletechnologies.com/
I can rebuild your motor to near new.
Jules
gdaddio@videotron.ca

2

The kits and cardboard WERE rare when I pulled MY 71 Challenger heater box about 6 years ago now. Mine looked like yours. I cleaned it all up and thought I'd just Google a heater box restoration kit. NOT. If I had a Camaro or Moostang I there were some crappy kits available but NOTHING for Mopar. Now I make all the Mopar heater box restoratiion kits in A/C and Non A/C from 63-76. Don't have the 69-7X C bodies though.

Funny, many people ask me about that "gap". In fact some have told me I don't know what I'm taking about when I tell them there is NOTHING that goes in that gap

PS I just had new clips sets made for the heater boxes too. It's amazing how much is being remade or can be restored by artisans like Jules above!

You can buy a heater core at rockauto.com

That's apart from the half hour it will take to get it to fit right.
The brackets are no where near close to fit out of the box.
Jules

What do you think about this motor:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayIS...RK%3AMEWAX%3AIT

Vented? The old one died cause of rust...

Mounting studs too long. They will touch the squirrel cage ( fan).Need to be cut.
Opening in the side will let in dirt, water and other bugs and stuff.
Wiring is too short to reach the contact points on top of the box.
No savings with all the mods and problems you will incur.
Jules

I'd like to report the follow-up.

I've got the exciting kit from james fillmore - it's one of the finest i've ever seen: Not only everything fits perfectly but he adds a very helpful documentation. I've got the heater core from summit racing. And I did rebuild the blower motor just with some ellbow grease

It's not to difficult - i'll give you some pics:

Uuups: How to start - first brake anything to make it more demanding... (Jim wrote in his documentation: clean it CAREFUL). But it's plastic and can be glued again

Then: gave the doors a coat with zync-paint and glued the foam gaskets on as Jim described. Fixed the black plastic hump with pop rivets...

To build in the defroster door is a bit tricky - it's not exactly symmetrical and it took me a while to figure out which turn around it will fit.

So this is the backside of the box with everything attached including the new cardboard (also from Jim) and the new clips (dito). Jim also includes the gasket to the firewall - in 2 versions...

Now the front half - and the caulk- thing. Btw: to remove the air-vent door from this half it's necessary to drill out 2 rivets it's fixed with. Can be refixed with pop rivets...