Heater restoration kit

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

Varty Yo

Varty Yo

10 Year 15 Year 20 Year
Joined
Jun 26, 2005
Threads
247
Messages
3,277
Location
City that rhymes with fun
So im wanting to restore my heater in the 42. I know metricTLC used to sell a kit, but i dont think i wanna attempt to deal with him with all the negative stuff i have read.

Is there any other companies that make a kit the same as his?
 
SOR.com sells the same kit.

H-02-big.jpg
 
Yah i saw both. Our dollar just sucks so bad right now the exchange kills it.
 
@Varty Yo, I just used SOR heater restoration kit yesterday to freshen up my heater while I replaced a leaky heater core. I bought the RHD kit as I'm working on a 75' RHD 45. I used Shane's kit on my 78' 40 a couple years ago and I can say that there were a couple difference between the 2 kits.
-SOR was a bit more expensive.
-There were no directions with the SOR kit while Shane's had directions. It is pretty obvious where everything goes except I have a lot of left over plastic washers and some little lock washers that make no sense as to where they go as there were no plastic washers or lock washers on the original heater box. There were a couple things I knew to do as this is my second heater rebuild but if it had been my first directions would have been very nice. Case in point I wouldn't have known to use 3M adhesive to adhere the new foam to all the panels. Small gripe but for me it's the little things that matter.
-Shane's kit came with the internal spring, SOR's did not and it looks like they are charging an arm and a leg for just the spring....glad mine had enough life left in it to reuse...
-Shane's kit had exact matches for all the little plastic bits that fit on the control arms. SOR's kit definitely did not. I reused a couple plastic spacers that fit directly in the attachment sites on the control arms as the SOR kit did not come with exact matches (maybe these original plastic bits are unable to be sourced?? Maybe it's cause it's RHD??) Regardless, this is where directions to point this out would have been nice.

Lastly, and this is what really pissed me off about the SOR kit was that the metal washer that you push on to the main control lever (kind of has fingers on it so it can only be removed by ruining it) to lock everything in place in the SOR kit was thin cheap garbage that I destroyed trying to push it on with a socket as per Shane's instructions that came with his kit. Perhaps I should have used a different technique to install that "washer" (I don't know what else to call it) but as there were no instructions provided I wouldn't know. I'll try and snap a picture of what I'm talking about later. Regardless now I have to source a replacement for the ruined one, uhgggg.

Sounds like a lot of griping but I'm just trying to right a review more or less describing my experiences. Would I buy the SOR kit again? Yes as it has everything you need without having to run all over the place sourcing things. Would I be much more careful installing that final "finger lock washer?" Yes. Did the SOR RHD kit for 75' have exact matches for all the original bits and pieces on the heater box?, No....but I'd still buy it again.

There is my 2cents...
 
Great info man!!! Thankfully i just bought a metric kit ofc a fellow memeber here!!!
 
I used the metric kit its very complete, heater cooks now. It is required equipment up here.
 
I need to do the same... I'll likely just source the foam at the local foam shop and the other bits at the hardware store. It may be more of a hassle, but 35% exchange + shipping isn't favourable right now.
 
I know its awful hey. Has killed alot of things i was goin to buy south of the border
 
Id rather not deal with metric now that ive read all the bad service etc.
 
I know this thread is a few months old now, but I'll throw my two cents in anyway. I just picked up the SOR kit to restore the heater in my 1974 40 project and I'm pretty disappointed. This review is not really a slam at SOR, as I'm sure they have the price right at what the market will bear, as I just bought one, but this kit is a let-down. Short of having it all in one kit and being able to check this box off in one fell swoop, the actual parts in the kit are a total rip-off.

Having only seen my disintegrated foam remnants and an absence of all the hardware on the control handle, I had assumed there were some really special pieces there. There aren't. For $40, there is no adhesive on the foam, the foam itself is the cheapest open-cell packing foam available anywhere, and the hardware are seemingly just a collection of readily available bits and pieces of off-the-shelf stuff you could probably find on your own. Again, this isn't a knock on SOR, as I know it takes time to source all the right metric pieces and they aren't running a Land Cruiser restoration non-profit. SOR is a great company and they have done a lot more to support the Cruiser community than I ever will, but be clear about what you are paying for—the convenience of getting (almost) everything you need in one little $40 ziploc bag.

With no original hardware to work off of, I didn't have many options, but I'm bummed. From a restoration standpoint, the foam might be closer to what Toyota used 40+ years ago, but I'm sure I won't be using this garbage when I do this again in a few years, which I will likely have to. Same with all the cheap, plastic bushings and washers. Do yourself a favor. Take pictures of all your hardware before it comes off (no directions included, as mentioned before), size things out while they're still good, and find some high-quality, adhesive-backed foam sheets to get the job done. Hell, you could likely do just as well with a bag of cheap foam weatherstripping from Home Depot.
 
I'm looking for a kit for both heater and blower motor. Which one is the better one to use? Also does anyone have one they won't to sell. My 40 is a 1974. Thanks
 
You are literally better off purchasing adhesive backed foam weather stripping from one of the big box hardware stores and making your own kit. Wire wheel and oil the screws / bolts or if they are shot buy new SS ones while you are buying the foam at Lowes / HD.

By far, the most time consuming part is cleaning, removing old paint, and then repainting the housings.
 
Ok this is happening finally lol!

What color paint did you guys use for the top plastic piece? I have some smoke grey here im probably going to try out. I drove the 42 the other day and it was -22c out and the cold air blowing in the heater due to crappy foam was kinda chilly haha
 
I bought 3M spray adhesive at the hardware store, and cut my own 1/4 neoprene foam from a sheet of it bought on amazon.

For paint I used rustoleum hammered gray on the metal, and I believe rustoleum charcoal gloss on the top. I have the cans at home, so I can check later. It’s the same colors @miller used on his as well.

Ok thing with rustoleum “hammered” paint. It’s designed to give a really mottled, hammered look, but if you spray light coats, you can get it to go on smooth.

For the raised letters, I just dry-brushed some colored acrylic paint with a foam brush - very carefully. I used stainless screws but didn’t bother trying to track down the apropriate JIS small-head screws.

I’m happy with how they turned out!

C8548E0A-1D56-49A7-9BEE-B8DD94541AEE.webp


7C0E5B8B-909A-4089-A5CA-DF33F17FDFF9.webp
 
RWBeringer4x4 said:
I bought 3M spray adhesive at the hardware store, and cut my own 1/4 neoprene foam from a sheet of it bought on amazon.

For paint I used rustoleum hammered gray on the metal, and I believe rustoleum charcoal gloss on the top. I have the cans at home, so I can check later. It’s the same colors @miller used on his as well.

Ok thing with rustoleum “hammered” paint. It’s designed to give a really mottled, hammered look, but if you spray light coats, you can get it to go on smooth.

For the raised letters, I just dry-brushed some colored acrylic paint with a foam brush - very carefully. I used stainless screws but didn’t bother trying to track down the apropriate JIS small-head screws.

I’m happy with how they turned out!

The is a super sweet Heater. Where did you find all of teh parts to rebuild the Selections controls? Do you have a List of the Past needs to restore to this level of perfection? I would love to know what it takes to make the mechanism work correctly and to look as nice and tight as this. Where did you get the VENT-HEAT-DEF Selection part from?

upload_2019-1-1_20-34-22.webp
.
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Back
Top Bottom