(1) easy-to-install heater for really cold weather (2) sunvisor

(1) I have absolutely no idea if this will work; however, I am willing to try it to get a difinitive answer that had eluded my wife and I since buying our Speedster. Other than a J.C. Whitney heater I installed-and isn't really good for St. Louis cold spells-what is available, easy to install, and gives adequate heat?

(2) I have seen and asked Cobra owners where they got the thin sun visors. They appear to clip on the top of the windshield. We have a devcil of a time with sun inour eyes-it is usually the ideal time to go for a drive. Are these available for a 56 Speedster?

I guess this goes here:

David and Susan Henschel
St. Louis, MO.
email: davidhenschel@charter.net

1. Start with the stock VW heater system (heat exchangers) with add on boat bilge blowers. Insulate the ducting in the car. $75.
2. Add electric seat heater pads (under cover) - About $230 for parts.
3. Get a BN4 (VW thing or T2 Bus) or BN2 (Ghia or bug) Ebersparcher gas heater (or Stewart-Warner InstaHeat) - 'bout $500. New ones are available but $1200.
4. If ya have a hot engine - you probably have an oil cooler. Move it inside for the Winter and add a fan to circulate the heated air. To add $200.
4. Go far south for the winter - priceless

What appears to be an easy sunvisor speedster install are donors from a from a Mazda Miata, it folds in half length wise when stored.
A couple of small custom brackets carefully mounted the the windshield frame and your good to go....I'll be adding this on my speedster project.

Alan,

Got any pictures of the visors? Any particular vintage? Buy 'em new from the dealer? Pls tell more. You gonna mass produce the "careful brackets"?

Heat: the stock VW heater boxes will work fairly well. Believe that insulating the duct work from engine to cab is extremely important. The fan assist (bilge blowers) is a very cute idea that I will look into, although I can say that on my engine, the air that comes out the vent comes out pretty fast -- hard to see how you could do much better. Also, I have the heated seats, but they only go up to the cut-outs in the back of the Speedster-style seats. Also, I have yet to live through a winter w/ new car, but plan to. My original P-car Coupes left a lot to be desired wrt heat, which is to say it was nearly non-existant, so I feel your pain, even though that was a long time ago for me. Standard issue road gear back then included a blanket, mostly for the delicate right-seater. There may be electric blankets made that run on 12 v that might be interesting also. There is much on the site about the gas or oil fired heaters, but frankly, these scare me. I suppose they work, if you get a good one. Read what's printed here, then decide.

Kelly,

....no pics as I have yet to tackle this idea, but can easily be fabricated.
Heat: I've done heat hoses out of the heater boxes and directly into the the center tunnel section at the wish bone with vents rearward of the accelerator pedal...only issue is that the E brake /shifter gets darn warm

I guess old-time VW owners were a hardy bunch. The installed "heater" in our Vintage Speedster Speedster works by pulling up a lever; sometime something comes out, sometime nothing comes out. Two winters with our car has proved it does not work well. Even after more than an hour driving-and a bit of heat coming out-it is cold, mostly because the windows do not provide enough protection. (HAVE ANY OF YOU EVER HEARD THAT A CALIFORNIA SPEEDSTER DEALER OFFERED PLEXIGLASS WINDOWS-WITH A PULL-BACK?)) If you know of these, that would be something worthwhile.

I wonder if any of you have tried the Cobra sunvisors? I will go to a Mazda Miata dealer to see about the sunvisors recommended.

David Henschel

There is much in the Forum here on lexan/plexiglass custom made side curtains. (Use Search function). See also speedstershop.com. Most folks who have them have made them themselves. Outfit in CA purports to have a design, rather pricey, and so far no reports from any of the faithful that this "commercial" product has actually been made/purchased/installed. Getting a better wind seal is what it's all about, and so that is where to focus energy. Check to be sure the wires attached to the lever actually make things happen at the back end. The arrangement is kinda clap-trap, if you ask me, and can get bound up. My original P-car ('56 A Coupe) needed to be set by hand, which is to say, from under the car, as the lever actuator from the cabin was really flakey. So I just decide when it was winter and when it was summer, and crawled under there to affect On or Off twice a year. Oh, the good old days . . .