1956/1957 Heater Box Finish

[Sheldon S.]

The AIM refers to the heater as being painted semi-gloss black. On the weekend I cleaned and repainted the metal pieces and the fan motor. Still have the inside fiberglass box that the heater core goes in. Does this get painted the semi gloss black also. It is painted now and looks like it was painted with the fan shroud and motor attached as the fibreglass is sort of a brownish finish under where it mounted. Or was the box left the natural fibreglass color?

Thanks
Sheldon

[Mark S.]

Re: 1956/1957 Heater Box Finish

Heater plenum is unpainted.

[Sheldon S.]

Re: 1956/1957 Heater Box Finish

What color would you say the plenum is?

[Richard M.]

Re: 1956/1957 Heater Box Finish

Sheldon, Here is a unrestored '57 mid-4000 vin. As you can see in the far left of photo 1, it's somewhat of a dark charcoal, not jet black color. These were raw fiberglass with some type of initial layer for smoothness, maybe a gelcoat process in the mold before fiberglass cloth and resin. I'd guess they were press molded since the inside surfaces are smooth too. All unpainted. Also a few underdash shots.

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Here is a later 58-62 plenum. Same type of finish. Whenever I restored these I just cleaned them scrupulously and put them together.

Before
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After
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