Yes, ball peen hammers are a no no.....be VERY careful on the 4 eye cars as those dashes can be VERY brittle and break easily.

You need to discharge the A/C to do it....I have done it without discharging the A/C but it's a pain...can be done but you will have skinned up hands and will probably utter a few colorful words in the process.

The more you do, the better you'll get at it.....but it still sucks ;)

While you are there check your evaporator core to make sure it is good...otherwise you'll be doing it all over again for that one ;)

That's sort of what happened to me. I already had the dash pulled back, figured it would be a good idea to replace it too. Went to the parts house didn't have it in stock. So I drove my car with two screwdrivers holding the dash in place till the following weekend came.

evap core??? i will need a frigging manual for this job....i can already tell.....

hey Paul.....why don't you come up on vacation and lets change out some heater cores?? ten day vacation ought to just about do it..two days to drive....8 days to do heater cores....:2thumbs:

Heater core -- $30 - $40

Support Equipment -- Two cases of Bud $??

Having a Chiropractor available to streighten out your back when the job is complete -- Priceless!!!!!:biggrinjester:

I learned that the hard way...painstakingly took out the entire dash (3 year old car at the time) and figured out that the A/C would have to be discharged for it to be done right (a friend was telling me I could hack the box slightly). So I plugged my guage panel in and drove it to the dealership, replacement core in hand, and no dash in sight.

The look on the service-writer's face? Now THAT was Priceless. :)

The tech was really helpful, and showed me on another fox body how they only loosen the dash and drop the column down to get access. They reused my old freon, replaced all of my o-rings, and didn't charge me much. I finished it up back at home, but I'll never do it again (unless the car is already apart).

It's not that bad that you will need a manual.

...Vacation?!? Doesn't sound like much of a "vacation"...:D