Heater core. What a PITA

[farside847]

My last project was to replace my heater core. It had corroded, and while working on my engine
I barely touched the hose thing, and it bent and started to leak. I got a new core at a local shop
for like $30 and took out my trusty manual to do the repair. I read the thing and thought, nah,
that cant be right. Can it? Do you really have to remove the wheel well? And the hinge to fender
bolts? Yep. What a PITA. As usual, I went a little camera happy while I was at it....

I started by taking out a few bolts on the wheel well, I didnt really need to take it all the way
out to reach the heater housing. Once I got the bolts off the firewall side it would have pushed
down enough, but I figured while I was at it I could seal the whole thing with rust stuff.



Look at the pile of rust that dropped when I undid the 3 bolts to the clip!



Getting the heater case off the firewall requires the hood hindge to be slid back a few
inches. This was fun. I propped up the hood with some 2x4 and unbolted the hindge, slid it out
of the way and quickly took out the heater unit so I could put the hindge bolts back in finger
tight. I didnt want a good wind to come up and close the hood on my head or something else important.

Now on to my next issue. The stupid little bracket that holds the core in place did not fit the
new unit. The after market core is a little thicker. It was a real bugger to get on, and then in
stuck out at an odd angle.



After a few head scratches I decided to loop a cable tie through the hole and arround the pipe to
secure the front of the unit. Then in the back I was able to screw it in place. I know its plastic,
but it didnt melt and actually looks pretty good.



Here is my wheel well when I took it out.



Then I cleaned it up real good, scrapped off all the surface rust and painted it with some good 'ol
rust paint. Made sure to hit those rust spots real good.



All done! What I thought was going to be a 30 min project ended up taking me almost all morning.



Now I need to clean up my other wheel well so they match.