Did my heater core...pics inside

[silver_pilate]

Well, I'd been putting it of and putting it off...but I finally decided it was getting a little cold to wait much more. I was lucky enough to have help from a friend who had done it before...big plus. All in all, it took us about 5 hours from start to finish. Here's some pics if your thinking about doing this...

Here's the dash coming out...


This is the mess you get with the dash off...


Here's the core housing...it's right under the screwdriver...


This is a trick I learned that keeps you from having to discharge the A/C. If you unbolt the housing from the supports and then unbolt it from the firewall in the engine compartment, you can pull the entire housing down far enough to pry up the lid. Then you slip the old core out. Hint: a couple of big pry bars help a lot.



Anyway...maybe this will help someone out...

Oh, and by the way...I didn't have any screws left over .

--nathan

[silver_pilate]

There...those pics should work....

Oh, and by the way, that's me on the left and my friend Chris on the right. It always help to have an extra set of hands...I wouldn't want to try it otherwise.

F.Y.I.
I called up the Ford house to see what they ran on labor on a job like this...the guy quoted me $650 in labor alone!! Even if that's a little high...you can do it yourself for around $24...parts and labor .

--nathan

[1969Mach1]

Looks pretty cool man, yeh you gotta love those Labour Fee's, it can be alot of BS. But if you can do the job yourself why not do it. Saved your self alot of money that you can spend on mods now.

[mustangman65_79]

Damn, thats a lot of work. Both my '79 mustang and my Bronco was a easy as pulling out the glove box. The heater cores were on the other side of the glove box, all in all, it took me only about 30 min to do mine. Your looks like no fun.

[silver_pilate]

Yeah...it's not much fun.

The guy helping me out works at a dealership and has done it before. He was telling me that there are guys that have been doing this stuff for 15 years, and their goal is to have no more than 2 screws or bolts left over. He says most of the time, they'll end up with 4 or 5. You'll hear a "Hmm...wonder where those went..." and then the sound of 4 or 5 screws hitting the side of the trash can.

Actually, I think my dash is tighter now than it was before...I think I finally eliminated one of the chipmunks that has been chirping at me for the last couple of months from my dash.

--nathan

[Crazy Horse GT]

650.00 jeez that guy gives mechanics a bad rep,my 87 f-150 was worse than that & the guy only charged me 80.00 to put it in

[Fox Body]

Originally posted by silver_pilate
...I think I finally eliminated one of the chipmunks that has been chirping at me for the last couple of months from my dash.

--nathan

LOL

Thanks a lot for the tips silver_pilate. I'm sure that will help some people out. And yeah, it does help a bunch just to have someone help you with that job. I've done it 2 times already (previous cars--Mustangs) and it doesn't get anymore fun. Took me 8 hrs the first time and 6 hrs the second time.

mustangman65_79, the reason why it only took 30 minutes to do your '79 is b/c it doesn't have A/C. If it did, that time would've increased by about 5 hrs.