Old Rusty Heater Resurrected

I bought an old rusty electric heater at a flea market because I liked its vintage style.  The blower motor was frozen and the heating coils and wiring looked dangerous, but the cabinet was sound, although it had a lot of surface rust inside and out.  This instructable walks through the steps I took resurrecting this old heater.

I forgot to take a photo of the heater before I began, but from the disassembled cabinet you can see the condition this old heater was in.  The cabinet parts are shown in the first photo, and the heating element/blower assembly in the 2nd photo.  There was a lot of internal and external rust on the cabinet panels, the fan motor was frozen, and the wiring was old and falling apart.  Plus, since these old heaters were made with no safety systems I really didn't want to try and repair the parts that made heat.

The rebuilding materials were fairly simple.  I bought a new inexpensive electric heater ($24) that had a heating element that would fit within the old cabinet.  I removed the heating assembly and controls from the new heater and saved the empty cabinet for a future instructable (it will become something other than a heater!).

In terms of supplies I used sandpaper, 14 gauge wire, wire nuts, and spray paint.  The tools used were a soldering gun (and solder), drill & bits, screwdrivers, and a metal cutting saw.

Dis assembly was easy -- I removed 24 sheet metal screws and the cabinet (photo 1) and heating assembly (photo 2) were all apart.

The first thing I tackled was to remove the heavy rust from inside the cabinet.  The cabinet's insides are not visible when the cabinet is assembled, but I wanted to stop the rusting.  I aggressively wire brushed the insides of each piece of the cabinet until all loose rust was gone (photo 3).

Next, I dis-assembled the cage holding the heating elements and fan (photo 1).  I saved the cage to use to mount the heater assembly from the new heater.  To make the cage fit the new heater assembly, I drilled out the rivets that held the bottom of the cage, cut off the part that I didn't need, and re-fastened it to the cage.  Photo 2 shows this lower part repositioned, and the new heater unit mounted to the cage. 

Since the new heater was a bit narrower than the old, I cut some sheet metal and filled in the gap between the sides of the new heater assembly and the old cage and painted them black (photo 3).

I then spliced in some additional wire so that the heater controls could be positioned on the old cabinet (photo 4).  Each splice was soldered and insulated with a wire nut.

I used a rust-stopping primer on the insides of the panels.  I didn't worry about a fine finish on the insides (since no one would ever see this part), but I did want to stop any further rusting.

I sanded the outside of each panel with 150 grit sandpaper, then 220 grit.  Then I primed and painted the outside (photo 1).

While these panels were drying, I sprayed the grill with a brass colored enamel (photo 2).  Then I let everything dry for 24 hours.

Since I had used the original heater mounting cage, putting the heater back together was simply a matter of reinstalling the 24 screws I had removed when I took it apart.

For some reason or another, I really like the looks of this old heater.  And, since it is really a new heater in an old cabinet, it's nice knowing we can use it without worrying about getting electrocuted or burning down the house!

And the really good news is that I have the new heater's cabinet to use for another project!  I've already started making plans for what it will become --- stay tuned!