Well my time has come. I started up my 66 SS here in CT and had a wet carpet from the heater core leaking anti-freeze inside. I've already ordered a new Heater Core and seal kit. Has anyone out there have any advice on the heater box removal. What about that one bolt in the fender well? Any help would be appreciated before the dreaded task.

Bob in CT

I'm in the same boat as you. Going to start on mine tomorrow. Good luck

Been thru it with corvettes and learned to take the NEW core to a radiator shop or pressure test it yourself before installing. Some NEW cores leak!

That one bolt was tough - if you unbolt the inner fender its much easier. I think I romoved the cardboard glove box as well. Once you remove the box under the dash, you will likely want to take the time to clean it up.... Mine was so filthy I was afraid to breath the air that would come from it - I ended up cleaning and repainting the entire thing. Also, get the new gasket kit, and some new hoses.

Hmmmm...might be a good time to do mine. Fenders and dash are out. ;)

There used to be a link from the ACES sight that went through this step by step. I havent seen it in years.

It's not difficult, just very tedious. Kinda like a Chinese puzzle: You have to remove this before removing that and so on. If it's made the same way as on my '69, you'll have to remove battery tray, inner fender and glove box. The core mounts in the heater housing inside the car, so that needs to be removed as well before you finally get to it.

The battery tray and inner fender are easy to remove, as long as the screws and clips are in good shape. If not, it can take half a day of cussing. ;) BTW, this is a good time to change the battery tray and the screws for the inner fender. I wish I have had a new glove box at hand as well, while doing this I realized that old cardboard is pretty fragile...:mad:

like olle said you can learn a few new words on that inner finder. changed out mine on a 64 . getting a new glove box is the way to go i did. :yes:

I didn't remove the outer box completely when I did mine, I just took off all the nuts and did the rest from the inside.Probably not the best way ... but it worked. Make sure you pull back the carpet and have some towels handy.:yes:

Finished this last month on my 67 w/AC. Part of a winter project to change the dash strip (yuk).

I took the seats out. 4 bolts each and you have a lot of room. Also you can pull back the carpeting easier.

Got the 'hidden' bolt out with an open end wrench. Tough but it came out

Glove box out. Push back up, bottom towards dash, slides down, open part facing the floor. I had AC so the duct hose had to come out first.

Outside bolts off, box pulls out. I had AC so I had the heater box seal to the kick panel area. Seems obvious but tip the heater box up when taking out so the anit-freeze doesn't all run out in the car.

Core was in the box with a bracket. I thought you had to remove the bracket but I found out later that if you just push the strap off the end of the core - it is like a pressure fit. Slides on and off to get the core out. That was 67 though, not sure 66 is the same.

I also found that the last guy ripped out the firewall insulation where the heater box goes. SO - I replaced that (which started a whole different chain of events. ha

New heater core can come with a seal kit if you want. By the way, if you get that kit, the square pieces are for the heater doors, to be glued on. I skipped it but figured it out too late anyway.

Seal kit comes with a seal for the outside box. So you end up taking that off the firewall to reseal.

I cleaned up the heater box, in and out, repainted, white grease on the door hinges, etc.......

Also, the seal kit did not come with the rubber deal that wraps around the 2 heater core outlet pipes. Not sure why not. Hinshaw said his set did not either. SO take the old one off carefully, you have to re-use it.

Hope something here helps.......Wish I took pics, but didn't.

I took the seats out. 4 bolts each and you have a lot of room.

Amen, brother. I didn't do that, and I was sore for two days after crawling between the seat and the dash. :mad:

Mike, that is one nice lookin 67 you have there

Thanks. People seem to like the color, rather than blue, black, etc.....