Heater plenum airflow

[324darrin]

 Attached are two photographs of the heater Plenum one with the cover off. There appear to be three outlets for heat. One is rectangular about 2 x 6“ and does not appear to have ever had anything attached to it.  There is another downturned outlet that has an opening about 1 3/4 x 3“ and two little protruding knobs that appear to allow something to attach to it that might possibly be for the defroster? There is also a long tube that’s only about 3/4 of an inch in diameter and about 6 inches  Long. Can anyone tell me where these outlets are supposed to feed and which one is the defroster? I am assuming that the long rectangular opening is simply to permit heat into the ******pit and that the downturn Outlet is for the defrosters. I am just guessing at this hopefully someone has the definitive answers. Thanks, Steve

[joefrazer]

What's pictured is a heater plenum for a 51-55 full size Kaiser. Was this in a Darrin? If so, it's not the correct heater. The Darrin uses the Henry J unit which is essentially just a box with a couple rubber elbows for the defroster hoses.

Attached is a picture of what should be in the car.

[324darrin]

Thanks for the response. Our Darrin was cobbled up to say the least but I'm a little puzzled why the original owner would swap in a full sized heater unit. The running gear is all Oldsmobile so why go to a Kaiser heater unit? Is it possible that the factory installed full sized units in the very early Darrins? This Darrin is #3?The heater core box was hammered (badly) to clear the hood bolts at the right rear corner so it certainly was not engineered to fit in this car. 

[324darrin]

With information learned here and with a little research, I was able to locate on the firewall where the original heater core tube holes were patched. So it seems that the heater was swapped out for some reason. Every time I start something on this rig it is a mystery as to what the thought process was all those many years ago regarding the many modifications that were made to this car. It's an ongoing challenge. I took my son for an 8 mile shake down run yesterday and had a great time. 

[joefrazer]

Post some pictures of your progress. We're all interested to see how things are going!

[pjkaiser]

I've seen some strange modifications to Darrins over the years as people destroy the iconic beauty of this car trying to personalize it into something it was never intended to be.   

Yes, show us pictures!!

[Terry T]

Recognize  that the heaters were dealer installed and they could install them one of two ways.  One way is shown in the Henry J pic--heater such that the core tubes point forward and the heater/defrost knob can be seen.  Second way is to rotate the heater such that the core tubes point upward, sorta hiding the knob, but results in slightly more "foot room" for the passenger.  If this installation was used on early cars, the ID plates would have to had been re-located to the center vertical portion of the "fire wall"/front of dash, as they would interfere with the tubes.  Recognizing this potential interference, Kaiser moved the ID plates from the right hand horizonal location to the center vertical location on later builds.