Part two is now live so check it out for the conclusion!

Something a bit different for my www.GetFitOver40.com YouTube channel and Blog, but I have nowhere else to really share a video like this and I thought that some folks out there may get some use out of this video. I have not seen anything else like it so why not?

Recently I purchased a 1973 Super Beetle. One issue with almost all of the old Beetles is the heating system since they have an air-cooled motor with no hot water system to heat the interior of your car with. The system most VW Beetles use is to use hot air from the exhaust and force that forward into the cab but this system is not very good and over time your Volkswagen Beetle will most likely have leaks along this heating system that let hot air escape and can even bring exhaust fumes in the cab of the car. Not ideal to say the least.

My 1973 VW Super Beetle had an upgrade at some point during its life and was given a gas heater that is placed in the hood area and blows hot air into the cab but it does not blow any air into the window area meaning defrosting your windows is not so great with a system like this. On top of it all My Gas Heater is not working very well and who wants to go for a drive and find that there is no heat to be had. The other problem with these aftermarket gas heaters is they can catch fire, again not ideal! 

My solution to heating my VW Super Beetle is to use a Propane Portable Mr. Heater that is approved for indoor use and it actually works very well. I crack my window a little bit to get some fresh air and the Propane Powered Portable Mr. Heater also has a CO2 and Oxygen sensors built that will auto shutoff the unit if required.

Again this does not solve my defrosting and defogging of the winds wince the Blower fan for the windows is setup to only take in fresh outside air which in the winter means very cold air blowing into the car and onto the winds, kind of useless!

In this video I remove my built in Gas Heater, then I attempt to remap my blower to recirculate the cab air instead of using outside air. And since my factory BOSCH blower motor is making a lot of high pitched noise and is potentially on the way out I install an inline fan to take its place.

So how did it all turn out? Let's just say I have some more work to do but I am nearly there with this project and it will eventually result in a nice warm and defrosted 1973 VW Super Beetle...