Installing
New Heater Channels -This page may take a while to load.
Heater Channel Replacement Article
by dragenwagen
copyright 2002
Page 4
*Disclaimer* This really isn't a how to. This is merely a collection of my thoughts and pictures. If you decide to undertake replacing the heater channels in your Beetle, then it is up to you to decide if you are capable of this task. You accept all risks involved in this endeavor. I am in no way responsible for your actions or your results. I am not responsible if you get killed, hurt, injured, squashed, burned, maimed, disfigured, burn your house down, accidental amputation of body parts, snoring, bed wetting, nightmares, drunk and disorderly conduct, profuse swearing or any other unforeseen natural or unnatural act for which I have no control over. Basically you take what I say or any of my pictures as merely reference material or entertainment material. Please do not use my pictures or my articles as I have written this and I am the owner of this article and all that which is contained in it. All pictures are mine. If you would like to link to them or use them in any way please email me and ask first.
Installing
New Heater Channels -
Now
take the time to clean up all the mess that you have made and check to see that you have cleaned up all the rusty
areas and straighten out out any bent up metal you caused when you cut out the old heater channel.
Here is where it gets interesting. Now I have to decide how to do this. I was wondering how I was going to make sure everything lined up when I put in the new heater channel, making sure all the bolts were going to into the holes and actually line up with the nut plates. This proved to be the biggest challenge yet. I didn't want to weld anything in until I was sure about how I was going to do this. Since my replacement heater channels were in two pieces, meaning top and bottom were not joined, there was no way to tell where I had to place them to get the top half lined up with the body and the bottom half to line up with the holes in the pan. Now you see why this was a challenge. Originally, I was going to weld in the top half and paint the inside of the channel and then weld the bottom half on. Simple right? Well sort of. That was still my plan, but it wasn't exactly happening as I planned. I put the new channel in place and wedged some wood to keep it in place to check few things. It was becoming apparent that this wasn't going to work. I'll tell you why later if you can't figure it out.
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Then, may I be struck down by the all mighty VW gods... I committed the biggest sin in heater channel replacement! I OPENED THE DOOR! What was I thinking you say! Its not welded in! Well.... yeah. I know. Not that I recommend it. But I did have everything in place and clamped real tight. Just look at how I pulled it off. I was real curious about the door and how it was going to close. I was real careful in opening it and only for the sake of obtaining some good photos.
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| Home | Heater channel page 1 | Heater channel page 2 |
| email me | Heater channel page 3 | Heater channel page 4 |
| Heater channel page 5 | Heater channel page 6 | |
| Heater channel page 7 | Heater channel page 8 | |
| Heater channel page 9 | Heater channel page 10 | |
| Heater channel page 11 | Heater channel page 12 - Not done Yet |
