Ventilation outlet behind coupe doors; functional?
 

Hi,

I have a C-1, C5 and C-7 Corvette, was at a Corvette car show last weekend and the subject came up about the ventilation exhaust vents behind the doors on a C-2 Corvette.
Some say that they were only on 63-65 C-2s, then eliminated for 66 and 67. Some had said that only 1963 were functional, then blocked off for later years. Some say the opposite. Some say that they were only functional if you didn't have air conditioning.(63-65 ). Some say that there was even a ventilation fan and duct work to boost efficiency.
Can anybody set the record straight? Please.
Thanks,

Mike

ONLY on 64 & 65s and ONLY on the driver's side. It does have a fan back by the vent and it is controlled by a vent pull next to the vent pull for the front driver's side pull..

…. and not worth crap.....
Bill

Looks like you're going to get some conflicting information here, too. Both the 64 and the 65 had functional roof vents on the driver's side. They operate ONLY with the heater fan in the off position and the cable under the dash pulled to one of the three speed positions, low, med, high speed. They are tthe same on both a/c and non a/c cars.
They pull some air and I used mine back in the old days in the winter with windows up when I had a smoker in the car. I no longer have smokers in my car, so the vent doesn't have as much value. If you open the kick panel vents and turn on the rear fan it allow more air to flow than with the windows up. Might be good in a situation where you want windows all the way up (rain, wind noise, etc). I always thought it was a pretty cool gadget, but use the vent windows more than I use the roof vent.

yep, pretty cool; so cool that they deleted it in 66/67 :rofl:
Bill

One of the best things about my 64 coupe. Very effective in moving heat out of the cabin. Those 66-67 rat motor coupes really could have benefitted from having the cabin vent system.

not trying to be a smart azz, but having owned 2 65 coupes, that little exhaust fan may get cigarette smoke out but the ONLY thing that will get the heat out to a comfortable level is a/c... coupes are MISERABLE in the heat without it. the huge rear window provides a greenhouse effect (FWIW, C1s with a hardtop have the same problem due to the large window area)
:hide:
Bill

different people have different tolerance for heat discomfort. I didn't say the cabin vent works like air conditioning. My 64 coupe is not miserable in the heat. Upper or lower case.
For all I know your cabin fan system in your two 65s may have been broken. What I do know is, my cabin vent system works great at pulling hot air out of my coupe. The fan came standard on 4 and 5 coupes. AC was an option. You get what you pay for. The cabin fan if functional as designed is better than nothing, and in my experience much better.

You don't suppose that the decreased cost in building the roof panel and installing the fan and controls had anything to do with it? Neither the fact that you don't like it, nor that they discontinued it makes it less functional.

Precisely. My contention is that after 1964 Chevy went on a cost cutting crusade in production of the Corvette. Lots of details disappeared or were diminished in size or quality.
The cabin vent system was a brilliant feature that did not survive the budget cutting pencil pushers.

:iagree: I've owned both a 64 and a 65 coupe and that exhaust system works VERY well. I had a buddy who said the fan on his 65 was basically useless. The intake portion was missing the screen and had become partially blocked. Once cleared, he was impressed with how well it worked.

I basically agree. When you're underway, the kick panel vents will push in more air than that dinky B pillar fan will pull out on it's own. But, in slow moving traffic, it might have some small benefit but not enough to justify it's existence/cost because of it's ineffectiveness in removing heat/air. But yes, it helped a little in slow moving traffic.

I used to smoke (long time ago) and best I remember, it was pretty lame about getting cigarette smoke out of the cabin. And yes, my system worked as designed both mechanically and electrically.

Seems like I remember that system being advertised as "draft free" ventialtion meaning no noise or wind blowing from a door window being cracked open.

I haven't used mine is years. I see people wanting to buy replacement cables to open/close that vent. They seem to be wanting to fix a cable that is stuck and won't move. Is it because the cable in their car is worn out from use or is it becase it is stuck from non-use? I tend to think it is the latter. Or how about the cars that had that almost useless vent filled in because some didn't like the looks of it and knew it didn't do much anyway?

I believe 64 and 65 Tankers did not have the blower.

Thanks for your reply
 

Thanks everyone for your rapid response. I'm impressed with the number of replies to my questions in less than 24 hours.


Mike

No..., both on '64s and '65s, and yes..., only on the drivers side.

Not very functional. Mine was wired (from factory?) such that the vent was on..., or the heater fan was on. I put a toggle switch on the vent motor such that I could turn them both off.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...b221ec1fbd.jpg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...8efd396785.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...8766be6813.jpg

better late than never I guess.

Bill, could it be that the supercool 63 split windows were an engineering exercise to cut down on the greenhouse effect? Two small windows rather than 1 huge one.... Hmmmmmm....... :rofl:

Well, as Al Gore said, you know that the greenhouse effect is caused by excess CO2, and people exhale that gas, so venting the cockpit air with the vent fan was clearly intended to alleviate the trapping of the suns rays near the drivers face by all the CO2 around him. :crazy2: That is obviously why the 64 and 65 coupes are so highly valued by Prius owners and other environmental experts...

Oh, sorry, I got carried away...