Today, I replaced the four screws that are around the vents on the passenger side door. The PO ground them down and bondo'd over them. I was trying to think what the purpose of this vent is? My truck has a plate that covers the vent preventing air from coming in. If I remove the plate, I still have a kick panel preventing air from coming in. With the plate removed, my guess is water will enter and run down the inside of the kick panel.. What is the purpose of those vents?

 

Fresh Air Heater .

 

I have a fresh air heater, but where is that suppose to hook up to? or maybe I don't have a fresh air heater?

 

Hi!

Those four screws hold a flange to the inside of the cowel. Attached to that is a rubber boot that connects on the other end to the opening of the Fresh Aire Heater. The heater intake should almost protrude through the kick panel, so the boot is behind the kick panel. It does on my 51 but the heater is mounted closer to the cowel in the 51.

In the Bonus Built trucks, instead of the louvered panel on the cowel, the boot connected to a large duct that turned 90 degrees just under the back inside of the passengers side fender and ran inside the fender all the way up to the front of the truck, mounting in the upper front fender to an opening above the headlight/grille.

Since I put the full front tilt on the truck, I had to elliminate the duct. I wish I had one of the louvered panels. But, what I am in the process of doing instead, is grafting on a fender fresh air vent door and duct from the passenger side of a 49 Studebaker. I have a linkage arrangement modified to open the outer door when the cable moves the "inside air/outside air" door on the heater to the "outside air" position. It's another one of my way cool little inventions. I'll send pictures when I'm done.


J!

 

If you have a fresh air heater the duct on the right side of the heater will align with the duct that the four screws hold behind the louvered cowl area. It sounds as if you are missing this piece or have the flat "plate" version used with the recirculating heater (much more common).

 

if you have the fresh air heater you will four ***** instead of two. i think.......

 

Yes that is correct - and significant. In the standard set up, the two ***** control the "heater/defroster" selector door; and the other the blower motor switch. All the air passing through this unit is heated before being expelled (either down toward the floor of up to the defrost ducts).

On the Magic Aire, the two additional ***** are cables (same as the heater/defrost selector) that go to two extra doors. One door opens and closes the chamber with the heater core (or bypasses it) for "Temperature" selection (hot or cold) and the forth **** opens and closes the door at the intake which selects the source of the incoming air - either from inside the truck, or fresh air from outside the truck (on the 56 from the louvered panel and through the short flanges/ducts). The four ***** on the Fresh Aire Heater should be labeled: "Blower;" "Temp;" "Air;" and "Defrost." On this heater system you can actually draw in cool fresh air from outside without heating, it to circulate in the cab.

J!

 

Great job explaning it Julie,cheeers.............

 

Ah but, color me confused! And to confirm this, I just had to take a hike down the road to my truck in my house coat, not a pretty sight! My Canadian production (where it snows sometimes) 51 f1 has the Magic Aire with 4 controls (complete unit for sale) but my truck is not a deluxe cab, one door lock, no armrests, no windshield trim, but two wiper arms. What gives?

Question? (important to me) do aftermarket AC/heat units just get their air from inside the cab and reticulate it? Might be a good idea to keep the vent part functional I guess?

Thanks, Ray.

“But being wrong keeps me humble”

 

Bump (sorry)

 

The A/C needs to have asource for fresh air. If you look at all the A/C systems, they have a fresh air source. This why it is called air conditioning, not just stale air cooling. Your A/C set up may not use this louvered port, but it should still have fresh air source. The louvers are indeed for the fresh air systems, and are blocked on recirculating heater systems. Just because you have a standard cab truck, doesn't mean that the original purchaser didn't get it added at the dealer ( a lot of the options were added at the dealership during the prep and detail stage). My 53 F-750 is a standard, not deluxe cab, but it has the fresh air heater, and it also has epectric wipers, and it also had the interior paneling around the rear window, and kick panels. Options were exactly that, any vehiclke could be optioned, the deluxe cabs came with some options as standard.