4.2 heater core woes

[phoenix71]

I have a 97 scab with a 4.2 auto. The knucklehead who owned the truck before me took the lazy way out when it came time to replace the heater core and took a grinder with a cutting wheel and cut the drip pan to access the core. Now, when I run the A/C, the passenger floorboard gets soaked and of course, the air leaks around the hack job he did are impossible to patch. I have tried silicone, hot melt glue and strips of inner tube, and most recently fiberglass with resin and a top coat of rubber undercoating. Each time the patch lasts for about 2 days before the levee breaks and my floormat looks like a small pond again. It has already ruined the carpet on that side. My question to the masses is : is there a easier way to replace that tray than taking the interior down to the firewall? This truck s a daily driver and I would rather not if at all possible.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[4.2trimble]

Originally Posted by phoenix71

I have a 97 scab with a 4.2 auto. The knucklehead who owned the truck before me took the lazy way out when it came time to replace the heater core and took a grinder with a cutting wheel and cut the drip pan to access the core. Now, when I run the A/C, the passenger floorboard gets soaked and of course, the air leaks around the hack job he did are impossible to patch. I have tried silicone, hot melt glue and strips of inner tube, and most recently fiberglass with resin and a top coat of rubber undercoating. Each time the patch lasts for about 2 days before the levee breaks and my floormat looks like a small pond again. It has already ruined the carpet on that side. My question to the masses is : is there a easier way to replace that tray than taking the interior down to the firewall? This truck s a daily driver and I would rather not if at all possible.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

with everything you have done i think this is your only option! and probably the best IMO

[scott.joyner24]

if it is breaking through fiberglass, no poxy in the world will ever work. sorry bro.

[phoenix71]

That is what I was afraid of but i figured I would ask anyway in case anyone else had run into that before. The truck is out of commission now due to the wiring harness getting intimate with the exhaust manifold. It shorted out some wiring and kept blowing the #24 fuse. I have rewired most of it and got the truck running again. I am crossing my fingers that since it was the wiring harness coming up from the transmission, that it explains the P1747 error code i was getting. I will let you know once I finish splicing wires!

[mitch150]

You don't have to pull the entire dash out to to pull the case, you just need to pull that side of the dash back. Is the evap case on the outside against the pass. side firewall? I can't remember

[phoenix71]

This is the drip pan underneath the coils that sits under the glovebox. As far as I can tell, it runs underneath the dash over to at least center of the truck. It carries the cold air to the vent pipes in the dash and channels the condensation from the coils to the drip tube to run out under the truck.
BTW, I spliced the wires back together and it is back from the dead. I am getting a low voltage signal to the throttle position sensor and an underspeed error on the air intake sensor. Probably a loose splice or a wire I didnt get the cancer out of. I guess we will see Saturday.