Looking at the PDFs of the old service manuals, the relevant job (54-11) has for the first step, a reference to job no. 68-2 - "Removal and Installation of Cowl Insulating Panels". It lays out how to remove some panels that sit behind the dash/instrument cluster, accessed from the engine compartment. But, the job description doesn't really go into how much OTHER STUFF is in the way.
Seeing as one of three engine comparment panels was already out, I figured I'd tackle the left one last night.
The center panel is pretty much a flat piece, with the brake booster (left silver assembly) and fuse box (duh) attached. The left panel has a funky S-curve to it, and mounts to the top of the heater box. Uh-oh... if you recall from an early blog post, I basically did an autopsy on the right-side heater box. And the right-side panel to match this one had been removed by my cousin no telling how long ago, no doubt so the heater box corpse could be exhumed from the car.
I decided to start with the front mount. It was rather dark in my garage, and even with some portable lights, I didn't really notice that the better way to get this end detached was to remove the screw that is vertically attached to the top of the heater box. Instead, I tackled the other screw, the horizontal one with a bolt on the back.
Here's a shot from the back side of the panel, with the bolt in question in view.
Naturally, with hardware that is 50+ years old, there was trouble. The screw itself began stripping immediately, to absolutely ZERO surprise. I figured that would happen. So, with the help of some vice grips and a ratchet, I managed to get the bolt off and that end detached.
That left the rearmost mount - same situation. This time, I'm even more sure of a screw stripping. The vertical screw is more accessable, but if it strips, I'm rather screwed. So, I'm going to try the horizontal screw/bolt again.
Alas, the bolt on this mount is in a difficult spot - I can't get the ratchet in there with that small box on top. But, while fiddling with that... the panel gets a bit of a bump, and...
...problem solved! The panel is detached! But, it took part of the heater box cardboard with it. Next fun bit will be figuring out how to detach the wires from that small box, so as to remove the panel entirely from the car.
I was pretty sure, considering the right-side heater box's fate, that the left one wouldn't be in much better shape, despite looking alright from a purely visual standpoint. And this result pretty much slams that conclusion home.
Since my plan is to strip the car down, repair/clean it, and rebuild it to be roadworthy for a long time - as long as I can manage it - I think my best route will be to go with the heater box reproductions that are available. I'd like to stay reasonably authentic, but in this case, it's a matter of expensive + authentic on one end (finding real heater boxes that are in good shape) vs. expensive + reliable on the other (heater box reproductions). I think I'll opt for "reliable" in this case. These boxes come with all the hardware (flaps), sans the heater cores themselves - but I'm set on that front.
Here's a nice photo of one of these boxes from Miller's website:
Miller's price on these is $549. Each. Gah. But, I imagine they'll last a lot longer than COMPRESSED PULP.
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