1939 / 1940 hot water heater
 

I bought a hot water heater for my 1940 car and had a new core put in and the motor rebuilt. Then someone told me that it is a truck heater. Then someone else told me that the 1939 and 1940 truck heaters have different mounting brackets.

I would like to finish restoring this heater and sell it, but I would like to make sure that I don't misrepresent it and restore it correctly.

Does anyone know the difference between the 1939 and 1940 truck heater mounting? Also I would like to know the correct color paint for each year.

Any help that you can provide will be appreciated.

Are the 1939 and 1940 truck fire walls the same? If so, I could restore the heater as a 1939/1940 and leave the final paint color up to the buyer.

Hi Tom, welcome to FTE.

I've been trying to find my old 40/41 parts book to see if it has anything in it about the heaters. The book was packed away when we moved (apparently packed real good). I'll try another closet this weekend to see if I can find it.

The heater that came in our 1941 was black with red lettering.

Thanks for your reply.

I have parts catalogs and they give different prefixes for the 39, 40 and 41 heaters. The 41 heater has 3 doors and the 39 and 40 heaters have 2 doors.

I haven't been able to find any reference to the mounting brackets for the heaters.

The one I have is from 1940 or 1941 - its a parts book without prices. I will let you know by Sunday what I find out.

Tom, I found my 1941 Ford Parts book, but it only shows all the body parts and the "standard" accessories. The heater wasn't one of them.

I did notice that I was wrong on the color of the heater that was in our 1941. It was siver with a red band. Didn't realize it before, but the 1st picture in my "Cosmetics" photo gallery still had the heater in place if you want to see where it sat.

Good luck on your project and let us know how things turn out.

Thanks for your help Carlene. Maybe someone else will be able to help with the firewall configurations of the 39 and 40 trucks.

I think the firewalls may be different between the 39 and the 40. The '39's had the battery mounted on the firewall, IIRC. The '40 had the battery mounted down on the frame rails.

Thanks for the reply. Now all I need to find out if the battery tray interferes with the mounting of the heater. I am assuming that the 39 firewall will be similar to the 39 car standard firewall.