Last fall I took the Fresh Air Heater out of the F2, cleaned it up, painted it, and reinstalled. Worked good this winter (if it was above 40 anyway).
Now it's leaking
I guess I'll just bypass it for the summer, and tear it out this fall.
At least I know how everything goes together.

 

Way to keep a positive attitude!

These trucks are such crap. A heater core that only lasts 55 years. Sheesh!!

I ran with my heater bypassed for awhile, too. The heater was fine. In fact, I had hot air all summer.

 

Heater? heater? what is this thing you call a heater?

After I patched all the holes in my swiss cheese firewall I couldn't bear to poke holes in it for a heater so I never installed mine back in the truck. This summer I'm going to be working on making the interior of the truck nice so I guess I'll have to do something about it.

Years ago I had a 59 Ranchero. I must have had that heater core in and out of that truck a million times. It would develop a leak, I'd pull it out and solder it up. A few weeks would go by and it would start spraying antifreeze on my passengers again, out it would come for more solder for another go round. I would chase the leak around all winter and would finally get fed up about the time it would start warming up outside. I'd bypass it with the intention of pulling it out and fixing it over the summer....yeah right!

Bobby

 

Hey Steve, you're doing it the right way. Don't work on it now when you don't need it. Wait until it gets cold and then tear it out, take it to the radiator shop, wait for a week (while driving around without heat) and then go back out in the cold to install it. That always works for me. I seem to repair things when I need them, not when I have time to repair them.