One for the idea book
Every day I spend some time at Sunrise Cyclery, a bike shop just one block from home (where my office is also conveniently located.) When I got my Ghia I told the owner and only staff member Jamie about it, only to discover he's a VW fan, too. He showed me the '65 bus he's got buried in the carriage house of his old victorian just five houses down from mine.
The thing's got some good rust spots on it, but apparently it runs ... just not that often. Right now it's kind of piled in there with the myriad bikes that are his overflow stock.
He gave me an interesting idea for an alternative to the standard VW heater: a hair drier.
Hear me out on this one. I had tried something similar with the Beetle back in Bismarck before figuring out that I had to first fix the huge draft problem before having any hopes of warming it up inside. It was a little electric heater with fan I got from Target for $20, and I immediately regretted the purchase as it just did not have enough power to do diddly-squat for warming up the cab when you've got some serious air leaks in your trunk and it's -20.
But, I don't intend to drive the Ghia at any temperature within at least 60 degrees of that! So, that plan may need revisiting. Yes, I know, fixing the cable to the main heater duct should be so easy even Dad could do it ... but I distinctly remember trying to rub soot out of my windshield in the Beetle because of the stock heater. I didn't do drugs in college, I drove a VW with its heater on.
Yet I digress. Here's what I'm thinking:
---=== Simple plan ===---
Find another one of those $20 electric heaters with fan from Target or wherever. Plug into cigarette light ... OK, install cigarette lighter and plug heater into cigarette lighter ... or, I could just hard-wire the stupid thing into the fuse box. Boom: a little bit of heat for those chilly 40-50 degree spring/fall days.
---=== Less-simple plan ===---
Buy a pair of cheapo hair driers and immediately commence with the fun part: take them apart! Well, not completely apart. Perhaps only take the handle apart and see about removing the switches and other controls from the fan and heating element of the driers so they can be mounted somewhere on the dash board ... or on a new plate on bottom-middle of dash, sort of under the radio/non-functional (decorative) vent controls.
Wire power to the fuse box, mount blow driers in trunk. Attach duct work from each drier to each side of the fresh air vents after the valves that open the fresh air. Voi la! Right and left independant heat controls for the windshield! He likes it cool, she likes it warm. They can both have it as they like it in the '72 Karmann Ghia.
It would have everything modern heaters have: temperature control (warm or hot), a fan with variable speeds (fast or slow ... my Beetle had a fan for the fresh air vents, why not the Ghia? Weird ...), fresh air or recirculate (open or close valves that control fresh air vents).
Of course, first I gotta slove this draft problem in the trunk ... :) (here's a hint, I believe I need to put together the dual horn boot properly!)
The thing's got some good rust spots on it, but apparently it runs ... just not that often. Right now it's kind of piled in there with the myriad bikes that are his overflow stock.
He gave me an interesting idea for an alternative to the standard VW heater: a hair drier.
Hear me out on this one. I had tried something similar with the Beetle back in Bismarck before figuring out that I had to first fix the huge draft problem before having any hopes of warming it up inside. It was a little electric heater with fan I got from Target for $20, and I immediately regretted the purchase as it just did not have enough power to do diddly-squat for warming up the cab when you've got some serious air leaks in your trunk and it's -20.
But, I don't intend to drive the Ghia at any temperature within at least 60 degrees of that! So, that plan may need revisiting. Yes, I know, fixing the cable to the main heater duct should be so easy even Dad could do it ... but I distinctly remember trying to rub soot out of my windshield in the Beetle because of the stock heater. I didn't do drugs in college, I drove a VW with its heater on.
Yet I digress. Here's what I'm thinking:
---=== Simple plan ===---
Find another one of those $20 electric heaters with fan from Target or wherever. Plug into cigarette light ... OK, install cigarette lighter and plug heater into cigarette lighter ... or, I could just hard-wire the stupid thing into the fuse box. Boom: a little bit of heat for those chilly 40-50 degree spring/fall days.
---=== Less-simple plan ===---
Buy a pair of cheapo hair driers and immediately commence with the fun part: take them apart! Well, not completely apart. Perhaps only take the handle apart and see about removing the switches and other controls from the fan and heating element of the driers so they can be mounted somewhere on the dash board ... or on a new plate on bottom-middle of dash, sort of under the radio/non-functional (decorative) vent controls.
Wire power to the fuse box, mount blow driers in trunk. Attach duct work from each drier to each side of the fresh air vents after the valves that open the fresh air. Voi la! Right and left independant heat controls for the windshield! He likes it cool, she likes it warm. They can both have it as they like it in the '72 Karmann Ghia.
It would have everything modern heaters have: temperature control (warm or hot), a fan with variable speeds (fast or slow ... my Beetle had a fan for the fresh air vents, why not the Ghia? Weird ...), fresh air or recirculate (open or close valves that control fresh air vents).
Of course, first I gotta slove this draft problem in the trunk ... :) (here's a hint, I believe I need to put together the dual horn boot properly!)
posted by Chris Druckenmiller at 10:39 PM
2 Comments:
Are you sure you need auxillary heat for 40/50 degree days? As long as the heat exchanger is in good shape you shouldn't get too much black stuff on your windows.
Anyway, the next few days should be glorious for driving - sunny and mid to upper 60's I'm planning a trip up the Mississippi with Pat to Mississippi Palisades State Park (50 miles north of the QC on the Illinois side). Should be able to put the top down, at least for the drive though the park. We might even go as far as Galena. Let's plan on a meetup sometime at Prairie Du Chien, a Druckenmiller Ghia rally!
Hope everything goes well with the tune up. Happy driving!
I should be hearing from Quality Coaches any time now.
Yeah, good point about if I only need a *little* heat for "chilly" days I should just hook up that stupid cable and not worry so much about soot. I could also just bondo the holes here and there in the heat ducts in the back. Still, it *would* be nice to hook up a fan to the fresh air vents in the front so you get air moving even when you're not.
Of course, what's the fun in not moving? And I suppose the vents do capture air pretty well when you are in motion ... :)
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