Any ideas how to repair a heater core in the vehicle?

Snicker -

Dad lived within 20 miles of Canada for some time. 12 months of the year he carried a survival kit in his Traveler. An engineer in one of the groups had a car brake down on the way home and walked from the car to a farm house. He lost both feet.

Dad always used two engine block heaters and a heated seat and back pad.

I remember one time he had to get mom at the big city airport. On the way home, a blizzard blew in. He talked of stopping every so often when the engine got cold to dig the snow and ice from the sides of the engine block!

North East North Dakota can get cold ! Canada is further north.

Martin

Nah. They put wheels on the woodstove and drive it into town.

Jim

Or carry a hot blonde (or readhead)

That works (almost) everywhere. Reminds me of the line told to me. The angle of the dangle is proportionate to the heat of the meat.

I always heard that one as "The angle of the dangle is inversely proportional to the square of the hair divided by the mass of the ass multiplied by the heat of the meat"

Guess that means my school was more mathematically advanced? :)

And in inverse proportion to the mass of the ass Gerry :-)} London, Canada

Hah! I am SO glad I read this. I did the same thing to my 1980 Ford Fairmont station wagon. It was about 8 years old, and I started taking the dash apart to change the heater core. The dash was one big injection molded piece of plastic, and every screw I took out broke plastic. I realized that I would never get the dash back together, so I quit removing dash parts, cut a hole in the firewall with an air grinder using the replacement core feed tubes as a guide as to where the heater core was. Then I cut into the plastic housing around the heater with one of those drill bits that cut sideways as well as drill. When I could see the core, I pulled it out. Installed the new one with RTV to hold it in. Then I put "great stuff" foam in the hole, and screwed a patch from scrap metal over the hole in the firewall. Took about 2 hours of actual work in one day. A guy at the barber shop later told me he took over 8 hours to change a core in a similar Ford product. The replacement core lasted MUCH longer than the original. We drove the Ford to the wrecking yard, with an up-to-date inspection sticker, in 1998 with 327,000 miles on it. I have no complaint with Ford, in spite of the chintzy heater-dash design!!

Brownnsharp

I do remember the 'saga' told of loss of power up there - big trouble - electric heat. They transported almost all to Canada (big (er) city) while the town froze. Dad and Mom stayed back in the 8-plex they were in and kept propane burners running in bathrooms and electricity from Dads Dodge Camper 4 cylinder generator. The Army air dropped propane bottles for a week. They also watched for funny stuff going on at the base.

The design of the 8-plex was by a New Jersey designer - didn't know the cold area of North Dakota. I guess the walls were windy and cold when the blow came.

Martin