had to remove the passengerside lower dash to do some wiring and when i removed the panel, it had a puddle of antifreeze on it. Just me luck, im almost ready to get the car running again and now i have to change the heater core.

Now if thats not bad enough, i took the heater coil box thig apart only to find that at some point in the cars life the previous owner had the heater core replaced and the ***-hats that did the work broke the "bezel" plastic parts that attaches to the rear of the car and holds it in place. Its held together with duct tape and some kind of epoxy that fell off when i pulled it out. Its only held in with 4 screws, how hard is it to take them all out before attempting to pry it apart?.

I have the core ordered, so i will have it monday.

Now the next issue, i have soldered 90 degree fittings to the outlets of the core so that i can use thread fittings and AN line for my heater hoses. I dont know if the fittings will fit through the holes in the firewall, and if they dont that means i have to cut them off, and try to solder new fittings to the new core with the engine installed. Not going to be fun.

Maybe i will have the car back together my fall......

 

close one there finding a leaking heater core while in the general area for wiring.

How about a couple pictures of those special fittings?

 

yeah i had the same problem. but mine is worse, the antifreeze soaked and i mean SOAKED into my passenger floor. while i was at work, cause i didnt want to drive it anymore. my dad started to take my dash off. bt instead of waiting to get the whole dash off he broke the plastic cover and tried pulling out the heater core himself. i advise to take off the hoses that enter the heater core first. then as you install it put some lubricant on the outside of the heater core pipes. the hoses will slide right on. just my thought on doing this last week.

 

yea, i lucky the core didnt just explode and wreck my newer carpeting!

as for the hoses, like i mentioned before, i have threaded fitting soldered to the outlets of the core, no more rubber hose, the issue is just getting those fitting back through the firewall, if they dont fit i have to chop them off, then try to re-solder the new fittings to the new core with the engine installed. There is not a lot of room back there.

I had noticed that my heat had a slight smell of antifreeze the last time i drove the car, so its been leaking for a little while now, good thing the car has sat for the last few months.

 

Your car is already nice and since you have to replace the heater core and solder on more fittings. Why not take it one step furter to make it simple god forbid it needs changed again.

These are really nice fittings.
http://store.auto-motif.com/Merchant...tegory_Code=dp

http://vintagespecialties.net/products.asp?cat=64

scroll down to Bulkheads


Part # 34116VUQ

You would prob. have to cut back the heater core lines alot and put fitting on it. Would cost more but be nicer in the long run.

 

the bulkheads are a cool idea, and i had through about it, but its not going to happen with the factory core. You would have to use a union on the inside so that you could actually remove the core later, and there is no room in there to begin with, let alone get a wrench in there to tighten a union.

I finished re-installing the core and soldering new fittings, they ended up at a slightly different angle then they were originally, but they still worked, the only issue i came up with is that the reproduction core that i used was just a little different than stock so the retaining bezel that hold the core into the car didnt fit on it properly? it has a metal clip that is supposed to clip to the side tank of the core, but it would no fit on the new core that i have, i had to remove it. The core itself is nice and tight in there so i dont think there will be an issue.