Demist Vent orientation

[ivan.wood]

I am about to instal a new dash, made by a friend, on my 1965 LHD S2 but when I did a trial fitting of the glovebox today the demist vent makes it impossible to fit properly. It looks as though if the vent, where the demist pipe fits, was toward the bulkhead it would give more clearance. Does it work better on LHD cars to switch the vents around or does it cause problems on the drivers side with a steering wheel?

I was hoping to upload a photograph but my internet to crap!!!

Ivan

[RichardHawkins]

Ivan,

I see you have had no replies. My car is an S4 FHC 1968 right hand drive, and I don't know how relevant my experience is. I refitted my heater earlier this year, and could not fit any of the flexible vent tubes. I was surprised as I often am with my Lotus as many things that came off the car will not go back on. I had kept the flexibles and carefully labelled them so that I knew where they came from and which end went where, but nothing fitted back where it should be.

At times of despair I look at Brian Bucklands book, when this fails I speak to Brian. His advice was to use a. b. s solvent weld domestic waste pipe elbows 1&1/4” diameter (32mm in Britain). With this bit of advice and new flexible duct from Sue Miller, still not easy, but I have managed. The footwell vent on the passenger side still fouled the flexible, but with a bit more alteration to the vent flap, it does work.

Hope this helps,

Richard Hawkins

[ivan.wood]

Thanks Richard,
Since I did not get any replies from anyone who had tried switching the vent position so I removed the heater box today and changed them over so the demist vent is towards the firewall. It was actually easier than I thought it would be. I had bought new hoses from Sue Miller and they are quite a bit longer than the original hoses so I can re-route them to avoid the steering shaft and glovebox. Will try and update the post if it works.

Cheers

Ivan

[marklowe]

Ivan,
There was a thread about this I while ago, if I remember correctly lotus changed the orientation at some time during production. The sides of the heater box are different as the directional fins are reversed. I have found a photo from the tread that I saved.
So whether the pipe is at the front or rear will depend upon the orientation of the fins in your heater box side plates.

[ivan.wood]

I guess the cent fins were designed to duct the heat into the footwell although you would have thought half would be into the footwell and the other half into the cabin area. It looks like it will make fitting the glovebox easier I might have to accept cold feet!!!

The photo’s show a temporary fit, I will do the final adjustments to routing and length when the dash with steering column and glovebox are finally fitted.