Heat 'Em Up

I'm getting low on stuff in the current crate, so I stole a peek into the next one (actually, the last one!) and found these sitting on the top.  I had the blasting cabinet up and running so I cleaned 'em up.

The heating system in this car is ludicrously simple.  The heater core in the heater box sends heated outside air into the cabin when you turn on the fan (and manually open the spigot for coolant--otherwise, you just get ambient temperature air).  The air goes into a chamber under the heater box and out four holes.  Two are for the defrost vents (which are always on, by the way), and two are for heat to your feet.  The footwells have spring loaded doors you open and close by hand (or by foot, if you're talented).  There's no vent aimed at your face, so you better hope the heat circulates up from your feet.  Thankfully, the Montgolfier brothers assure us that this is true.

I did a 'before-and-after cleaning' shot on these.

 

They're now drying after being painted.  The air tubes are fine.  The rubber connectors hooking the tubes to the air chamber are ok, but they're cheap and I'll probably replace them both.

I want to briefly discuss cleaning stuff using the blasting cabinet.  It's amazing how you can tell which parts have original paint and which don't.  The parts with original paint clean up like nobody's business.  The paint just disappears.  It's like spraying clean metal at it, it's so easy.  The parts that have been repainted... well, the paint holds up a bit better and it takes more work; usually degreaser, then scrubbing with a wire brush to get down to the point where the blasting cabinet can finish the job.  I use glass beads, a finer material that takes longer but doesn't damage things.  It leaves a nice finish for painting.

EDIT: All dry now.