Defroster vents & steering column

Well, let's see.......

Intermeccanica uses an Ididit steering column on some of their builds, so I guess it should fit (depending on the one chosen).  Bob Carley has one on his about-to-be-delivered IM-6.  I've seen exactly three Speedsters using GM-style steering columns and they all had really big upper sections (just below the steering wheel) that tended to look a bit clunky, to my eye.

The defrosters offered with the CMC kits were not all that hot looking, either.  You might try contacting Carey Hines at Beck (Special Edition) [ carey@beckspeedster.com]   I know that he has some nice looking defroster grills and may have the ducting for below the dash as well.  The bad news is that you'll have to remove the windshield to easily route in a pair of defroster grill openings in the dash.  

All of the controls (there either was a single turning knob on the central tunnel on earlier models, or a pair of levers in conjunction with the emergency brake lever) are available from https://www.bugcity.com

 

Ididit works I have it on my IM as well, and You can check out Vintage air but I am not sure what the complete kits gives you.  I know they have no external air intake but mostly use recirculation of air to give you a/c and they provide heat too if your using a watercooled car. But even with cold air the fan is very good. 

In any case if you need heat on a vw engine the old heat exchanger works but is no comparison to the watercooled solutions... 

On the IM can you tell me how long the Ididit column is?  They measure from the hub where the wheel mounts down to the end of the column where it then connects to a steering U-joint of some sort. I know they make: 16,28,30,32,33,36 inch units.  I am very interested to find out which one IM chose as I would like to do the same. THANX

PS: A wrecking yard in the State of Washington is chasing down my heater control problem.  I'll look into Vintage air on the defroster vents and Gordon, thanks for the heads up on the windshield - thankfully it is not mounted as yet ..

You know, you could always try emailing Henry Reisner at Intermeccanica (henry@intermeccanica.com) and simply ask what he uses.  IIRC, he also uses a rack and pinion steering unit and has a couple of universal links and a cross-shaft to get to it, but you may get by with some slight mods.

Is there a problem with the mid '60s VW column and steering shaft? These parts would appear to be available. They fit and look pretty right too, depending on how you do the turn signal switch. 

As for defroster, a few of the TD guys have done this with a fan, some flex hose and a couple little round vents placed just behind the windshield. If I were doing it I add heat via the tunnel: cut two holes, about 1.5 or 1.75 inches, on the tops of the frame horns near where they split. Weld a 2-inch stub of exhaust pipe into each hole to gusset it for strength, then plug your heater hoses into those stubs.

In the passenger compartment, cut a hole in each side of the tunnel under your legs. Gusset that with a piece of flat 1/8 thick steel plate (same sized hole), and put a little Sterno pot sliding flame adjuster over each hole to control the flow. A third hole in the top of the tunnel, way up under the dash, with the same kind of exhaust pipe stud to hook to your defroster. Et Voila. 

Just some ideas.

I got the original upper defroster covers from Klassee356.  The CMC optional ones were a flexible rubber piece that you deform for oval vents.  The original have larger defrost area and fit under the windshield rubber.  I took VW (any car ones would work) vents and made fiberglass ones from them - had to cut and grind when fiberglass set.  Then I fiberglassed to dash after cutting vent holes and ran hose to the CMC round outlets either side.

HVS20.0

Defroster Vent Cover. 2 Req'ed. Fits Speedster.

$19.50

 

Wow Wolfgang that is definitely first class fabrication glass work and a great fit to the curve of the windshield.  With the vent that close to the glass it can't work better than that.  Thanks for showing us.  I hope I can come close to the same.  I had even thought of using old vacuum cleaner attachments to attach to the air tubes and attach under the dash but your set up takes the cake.

Hey Greg,

  I have a CMC and am trying to restore the heat in it that was removed when the A1 Sidewinder exhuast was put in.  Tiger is sending me some heat exchangers that are flanged to fit but I need to re-plumb everything.  You mentioned outlets under the dash.  I have pipe/outlets that are basically stubs that come out under the dash on both sides that seem to be welded into the frame.  I also have outlets underneath that appear to be located where the heater boxes, if they were there, would 'exhuast'. Picture attached.  Is it that simple that I need to hook up heater boxes and pipe to these inlets and outlets?  Where does the air travel?  I tried to blow compressed air into the footwell vents to see if anything, or 'anybody' would exit out underneath but I don't think I've got enough volume of air to test effectively. Any help would be appreciated.

Yes it the welded on stubs. There is also an outlet either side down by you feet (to outside of car.  It might be covered with carpet but there is an opening there (think mine was 2 1" holes drilled to overlap.  Porsche used a stainless steel slipping cover on it.  Closed and heat went to defroster/open to your toes.  Were like $22 at Klasse356 - think each? I have a blower from a 914 that I want to plumb in under dash to increase flow.  Many say heat is loss as it travels under door sills on either side - probably is.  Alan weld stubs into the center tunnel and uses that instead. 

 

Your photo looks like it had the OEM insulated heater connector hose at one time.  Here's photo of a deteriorated one I found on SAMBA.  That would get a whole lot more heat to the interior too.

 

Thanks. I thought so.  I just can't see how that stub underneath the car get channeled into the car since there are various frame pieces in the way and I can't get a good look in it to see where it goes.  But since its there it must go somewhere.....

Frank...there's another option which I found quite effective. I ran SCAT heater tubing from the heater boxes to cabin air flanges that I mounted left and right on the bulkheads underneath your door jambs, left and right. It avoids the heat loss of running all the way forward thru cold steel tubing but does not provide any defrost.

Pic here of one of mine mounted. These are aircraft type flanges available thru Aircraft Spruce.

They provide much more heat, even with an air cooled engine and I was going to run a boat type bilge blower fan rigged up to my defrost vents but have yet to do so.

 

I did the same as David and it makes a HUGE difference in performance.  My car now heats up faster than my DD.  This method sacrifices defrost, but the defrost wasn't much to get excited about before.

Greg's may look good but they don't work...nothing works!

I recall my Karmann Ghias had outlets behind the two seats.  Certainly helped to heat up the cockpit, along with the foot outlets.  Really, no heating system in an old VW worked all that well, except with an exploding gas heater in the trunk.

Tom Blankinship posted:

I did the same as David and it makes a HUGE difference in performance.  My car now heats up faster than my DD.  This method sacrifices defrost, but the defrost wasn't much to get excited about before.

Giday, Tom. Can you say if Carey will be installing a new heater in your car too ?  My heater is in the vacant space between the back of the rear seat and the engine firewall. It's very easy then to route the hot air to those bulkhead ducts.

I'm a self confessed back yard hacker and Carey is a Pro. Likely he'll put a heater where it belongs up under the dash ?

The heater core will be under the dash in the center and will also be plumbed to the defrost vents.  Controls will be at the top of the driver's kick pad area mostly out of site.

Thanks Dave and Tom.  I was thinking of cutting holes right behind the seats on either side if the transmission tunnel, using round outlets and plumbing directly to them from the heater boxes.  Not worried about defrost, just cabin warmth.  When I got underneath though I realized that getting a hole in that area would be nearly impossible since there is so much metal in the way.  

My question is this:  do either of you experience elevated engine noise from plumbing heat that way?

Not noticeable.

> On Dec 20, 2015, at 5:18 PM, SpeedsterOwners.com <**************> wrote:
>

Nope.

FWIW, here's how VS does it.

They use the same (or similar) flexible heater tubing from the heater boxes that David describes, but take it to solid PVC pipe (3-inch, I think) that runs inside the rocker panels to the front of the cabin. Then they use another short length of the flexible tubing to connect the PVC pipe to the standard outlets in the footwells.

It looks like, under the car at the footwells, they're using a 90-degree PVC elbow that's pop riveted to the bulkhead and sealed with silicone, epoxy, or maybe glassed in. It's all gooped up and painted over, so a little hard to make out. A small plastic tube has been connected to this same elbow and runs up to the defroster vent.

This provides very good heat flow, although I've never noticed whether there's much coming out of the defroster vents. And yes, opening the heater box flappers does bring more engine noise into the cockpit, but I'm pretty sure that noise makes you feel warmer - in the same way that the noise of an air-cooled engine fan makes you think you're going faster than you really are.

 

 

PVC pipe running forward inside rocker panels:

Inside the front wheel well, a short length of tubing connects the PVC pipe to a PVC elbow that's sealed to the bulkhead. Another small tube (hidden behind the elbow) runs up to the defroster vent. (The small tube that's visible here is an unrelated electrical conduit.)

I bypassed the metal frame and ran flexible heat resistant tubing to the tubing under the rockers in my 2006 Vintage. Definitely more heat and more engine noise . No improvement in defroster. I got the tubing from Kirk.

Joel

Great post, Mitch - I often wondered how VS managed heat delivery.  I've often wondered why VS foot heat outlets were where they are - now I know.

I've been thinking about where I might mount my BN2 heater so any variations on a theme are welcome.

gn