Retrofitting heater/defroster

[Mark IV]

For cheap try Harbor Freight, they have both air and electric that will be fine for as much as you will use it. I have an air unit you are welcome to use.

[DanEC]

Yep, I bought an inexpensive right angle electric drill at Harbor Freight. Only used it a couple times but it is handy when you need it.

But an air drill might even be slimmer.

[1795]

Tried Sears and they did not have anything in stock. Will try Lowes and Harbor Freight tomorrow. If nobody has anything, Rick I will take you up on your offer to borrow the air drill. It should all work out, I am running the process through my head and visualizing it. I really appreciate everyone's suggestions and thoughts. I will take pictures from beginning to end so that someone else will be either able to follow through with the process in the future, or take a close look and say, "No way in hell!" before purchasing the heater/defroster

Jim

[patrickt]

Mark the holes to be cut with a sharpie, drill a hole through the middle of it, from an angle, with any old drill and bit, and then use a rat-tail file to make the hole just right to the sharpie marks.

[ERA Chas]

Originally Posted by patrickt

Mark the holes to be cut with a sharpie, drill a hole through the middle of it, from an angle, with any old drill and bit, and then use a rat-tail file to make the hole just right to the sharpie marks.

DON'T do that and DON'T take advice from a scholar who's never done that.

[DanEC]

I think the hole saw for the two core lines is probably the best approach. If you have a dremel with the little sanding drums they would be nice to kind of slightly oversize the hole to clean the edges up and smooth them - you may have to get it in from the dash side however.

It may have been overkill but after I installed the heater hoses on my heater I put a heavy strip of 3M strip caulk around them at the aluminum to seal it up tight. It can be a little sticky in trying to mold it to a finished appearance but I found that by wetting my finger with detailer spray or spray wax I could tool it and it also cleaned any smudges off of the aluminum.

It's not necessary but I also fastened a metal strap to one of the upper heater case screws at the rear (dash side) of the heater and ran it up to the inner fiberglass panel in the cowl and secured it with a short screw. That made the heater mounting very solid. With just the 3 screws at the firewall it wasn't as solid as I wanted it to be.

Good luck

Edit - a picture being worth a thousand words - you can see the strap here. I had to be careful where I drilled for the upper mount.

[1795]

I plan on drilling a small pilot hole through the center of the marks on the template to center my bits, and then will follow up with the hole saw for the inlet and outlet hoses and 3/8" bit for the mounting screws. I do not have a dremel, but will use your suggestion of a rat tail file to clean up the holes. I like the idea of the additional mounting support strap, but it would be too hard to do now with all of the gauges and wiring in place. Heading out to pick up a few last supplies and if everything goes well, will start taking pictures and getting the project going.

The problem I am fighting is that this is the first nice day in a week, and the last for at least one to two weeks and I really want to take the car out for another spin....

Will keep everyone posted.

Jim