Heater blower, part 1

I started on deconstructing the dash and glove box area in order to safely repair the rust-throughs at the rear of the engine compartment. Having gotten this far I decided I should extend my reach by removing the hard plastic coating in that location (same stuff as on the floor?) and to the rust breaking out around the blower motor mount.




According to the manual, removing the blower  requires removing the blower duct under the dash, and to do that requires removing some of the controls. Unfortunately the manual was not entirely clear as to what gets removed.







The control panel was attached to brackets on each side with a single bolt, head facing outboard. I thought I needed to disconnect the control cables, and did disconnect one, but in the end I left the assembly in the car. The blower duct was coming apart at the upper seam on the LH side. Looks like it can be glued.

RH front floorpan out, more underneath

After spending so much time removing that mystery goo from the passenger side front floor it turned out I needed to remove the entire patch panel. That's what I did today, and that piece of sheet metal will not be going back in.






As I was drilling out pop rivets I realized the seat had to come out. One 10mm bolt at the front of each rail, one on the outboard rear, two on the inboard. So many things are missing a fastener on this car I wonder if there should have been two on both sides. Note bracket on inboard bolt that goes up from underneath.





It is the nature of allure that what is hidden under a skirt is much more intriguing that what it is visible. I could say the same about this floor panel. When at last I had peeled off the patch panel the exposed surface seemed at first to be in terrible condition. After a few minutes poking around it turned out to be rather basic, if a bit rusty.

I was surprised to find so many layers of stuff underneath. A layer of rubbery plastic, reminds me of tar paper. Thin foam rubber. A thick layer (1/8 in.) of a black plastic that was poured on wet, looks like Bakelite. Under that is the original floor pan.

Have to find an efficient way to remove that coating.

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Floorpan not so good

My respiratory system showed no unusual effects after Wednesday's session. Today was all about finishing; removing the last of the goo and paint and the usual wash and metal prep cycle, maybe even a coat of POR-15 paint.



I tried using a scrub pad in combination with acetone, without much success. What did work well was to spread a "clean" rag flat, soak it with acetone, wait a minute then move it around just a bit, working the wet down into the goo. That plus some scraping on the thick spots and slowly it came off.

When the goo was gone I used a flap disk in the 4" grinder to remove most of the paint and some light corrosion. To finish off the last bits I switched to a wire brush in a die grinder.



I was working on a rough spot with the die grinder when the brush broke through a spot, and underneath was all rust. The only way to be sure it gets taken care of is to remove the repair panel floor pan. Good news, if it can be called that, is that it is pop riveted in. I can't wait to see what's lurking underneath.

I did finish with a POR-15 clean and prep, if only to prevent any more damage.

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Ripping out old carpet

 

I will not be surprised if my asthma acts up tonight, or if my allergies go haywire. I pulled out a bunch of old carpet from the passenger's side of the E9 today. Filthy, rotten carpet. The bottom layer actually looked original, which would make it 38 years old. Dust. Mildew. Candy wrappers from my kids when they were in elementary school, which was, say, fifteen years ago.

It was not my plan to remove the carpet. I started out to work in the engine compartment, where I need to weld in a patch along the gutter by the rear RH corner. To do that I needed to check what was behind the panel. That was behind the glove box, so that had to come out. Except the glove box hinge was blocked by a pile of old carpet.

I had no idea the carpet had been glued to the floorboard. The mystery glue looks like creosote; hard, tacky, sticks to skin and hard to wash off. Softened by naphtha, better removed with acetone and a wire brush. The brush breaks off tiny balls which dry and can be vacuumed. I must have wasted an hour removing this stuff and the job is still unfinished. It has to come off for the POR-15 to stick.


The floor pan and part of the firewall have been replaced using galvanized steel, which appears to be in good shape. The edges were smoothed with some kind of filler, which has dried and shrunken considerably. That has to be re-done. Even the new floor has a few small rust holes, so it will get a layer of fiberglass as part of the POR-15 process.


I did remove the glove box. The inboard support still had the original pin and snap ring, but the outboard support was a bolt and nut. Only two lag bolts attached the hinge even though there are holes for three. Had to disconnect the light wires.

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