During the R&R of my Climatizer, I found that the heater diverter box needed a renewing, since it looked shabby but also worked poorly. The original rubber sheet material that was used to quiet and seal the diverter paddles was long gone, and the box would require disassembly to fix them.
The box is two parts, riveted together; a formed cardboard upper and a fiber-reinforced thermoplastic lower.
I first tried drilling out the rivets, but they only spun in the soft plastic. I didn't want to enlarge the holes, so I used needle-nose pliers to bend them up and removed them one at a time.
Instead of using rubber or foam to "reupholster" the flappers, I went for felt, figuring it will hold up better and make for quieter operation. The sheet felt was procured from Michaels; I couldn't find the thickness I wanted so I bought two sheets of the kind with the self-adhesive backing and laminated them into one thick sheet, and adhered the result to the fiberboard flappers with Goop.
Someone here on the forum advised painting the cardboard portion with a thinned wash of carpenter's glue, which I did. It not only freshened the cardboard visually, it also stiffened it and sealed it.
When the cardboard was dry, it was time to reassemble the bits. Note in the photo below that there's a washer on the upper shaft of the defroster flapper. This goes on the shaft and rests between the pinches in the shaft and the cardboard top to keep the shaft from unduly wearing the cardboard. Don't forget to replace it before you begin to reattach the top.
To reattach the top, I first tried pop rivets, but they took too much pressure to set and I was afraid of cracking the plastic tub. I settled on 1/4" machine screws with self-locking nuts. Not original looking, but they do the job and if I ever need to get back in for some reason, easy to remove.
Good as new, ready to re-install
[img=left]http://members.cox.net/clarknovak/lark.gif[/img=left]
Clark in San Diego
'63 F2/Lark Standard
http://studeblogger.blogspot.com
www.studebakersandiego.com
The box is two parts, riveted together; a formed cardboard upper and a fiber-reinforced thermoplastic lower.
I first tried drilling out the rivets, but they only spun in the soft plastic. I didn't want to enlarge the holes, so I used needle-nose pliers to bend them up and removed them one at a time.
Instead of using rubber or foam to "reupholster" the flappers, I went for felt, figuring it will hold up better and make for quieter operation. The sheet felt was procured from Michaels; I couldn't find the thickness I wanted so I bought two sheets of the kind with the self-adhesive backing and laminated them into one thick sheet, and adhered the result to the fiberboard flappers with Goop.
Someone here on the forum advised painting the cardboard portion with a thinned wash of carpenter's glue, which I did. It not only freshened the cardboard visually, it also stiffened it and sealed it.
When the cardboard was dry, it was time to reassemble the bits. Note in the photo below that there's a washer on the upper shaft of the defroster flapper. This goes on the shaft and rests between the pinches in the shaft and the cardboard top to keep the shaft from unduly wearing the cardboard. Don't forget to replace it before you begin to reattach the top.
To reattach the top, I first tried pop rivets, but they took too much pressure to set and I was afraid of cracking the plastic tub. I settled on 1/4" machine screws with self-locking nuts. Not original looking, but they do the job and if I ever need to get back in for some reason, easy to remove.
Good as new, ready to re-install
[img=left]http://members.cox.net/clarknovak/lark.gif[/img=left]
Clark in San Diego
'63 F2/Lark Standard
http://studeblogger.blogspot.com
www.studebakersandiego.com
Very valuable info considering those boxes haven't been available for a good while.
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