2/29/2004: Heater, Wiper Motor
I decided to continue on stripping the dashboard area. My goal is to get all the stuff that needs to be refurbished out of there, leaving just stuff that can be masked off when it comes time to paint the car.
Yesterday, I removed the windshield wiper motor assembly. (Note: there appear to have been grey rubber gaskets between the chromed bases on the outside and the body ofthe car.. THey were totally disintigrated, though. On the inside of the car, rope caulk was wound around the threaded section.
Once that was out, I finished bead blasting the intake manifold and painted
it with Eastwood Diamond Clear- we’ll see how that holds up.
I then tore down the engine mounts so that the metal pieces can be repainted. One in particular was in pretty rough shape (rusty, snapped off stud, etc). I’ll probably swap it out with one from the spare parts pile.
This morning, I took off the windshield washer tubing and jets, then began to take the heater out. The heater box is held in by 4 bolts (the two at the top are hard to see- one of which was missing on my car, either because it was never installed in the first place or because someone has worked on this before, I don’t know which).
I figured out the hard way that the heater core must come out before the heater box can be moved. If you do it the other way around, the pipes that go through the firewall can’t move enough to clear it. It would have been better if i’d removed the heater core before messing with those bolts.
The heater box is as rusty as you would expect it to be (it’s open to the outside world at the top, relying on drains to take the water out the bottom of the car). Nothing substantial though, easily cleaned up and painted.
I’m happy to say that the whole cowl area of the body seems perfect- no signs of rust at all.