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Old Oct 14, 2002 | 07:36 PM
  #16  
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restorit
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From: Bismarck, ND
Tuffy center console

On the seat heater..... honestly, this is costing me a couple hundred $$$ to do right, however, I'm happy with the rest of the truck and this is a design flaw I'm trying to correct. I use mine a lot during the winter months, when our temps can hit -40F. The pickup truck heater that Ford swapped into the Bronco just keeps the frost off the gauges, and the truck never gets warm inside. Recently I saw a unit made by Flex-A-Lite in the Summit catalog, which is basically a self-contained heater (I think it was designed for the street rod crowd) that incorporates the core, fan, and vent area all into one neat and tidy little package. After some eye-balling of the dimensions under my driver's seat, I ordered one. It fits (though tight), with the exception of being just a bit too tall. I'm in the process of fixing this by raising the seat by installing 1" to 2" spacers, most likely to be made out of box steel tubing. This should allow me to slide the seat forward and backward without hitting the heater. The install is pretty straightforward, though I will admit that it's going easier since I have the engine out of the truck, making it easier to drill the two 1" holes in the firewall. I basically found a good spot just to the right of and above the accelerator pedal and under the dash (to the left side and above of the tranny tunnel) and drilled a couple of 1" holes with a bimetal hole saw. From there, I installed a couple of brass bulkhead through-fittings (from NAPA), and installed 90 degree 5/8" barbed fittings on each side. I'm running -10 AN braided steel hose (normal heater hose would work, but I'm worried about abrasion in the floor pan area) from the interior fittings beneath the carpet at the firewall, down the driver's side of the tranny tunnel, and exiting through a slit in the carpet just outside of the right-hand seat riser. The hoses (now on top of the carpet) pass through the side of the riser and connect to the heater. Under the hood, I've teed off of the heater hoses with two more that run across the firewall and connect to the outside of the bulkhead fittings. The kit came with a three-speed fan switch, which I've mounted on the dash. This should double the heat output of the truck, and hopefully make the interior more liveable this winter.
 
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Old Oct 14, 2002 | 07:54 PM
  #17  
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Tuffy center console

 
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