When we say we have no previous mechanical experience, we mean NO previous mechanical experience...

That being said, we want to learn now on Myrtle.  Now, since she is freezing from lack of heat and this week looks bad, we need to try to fix this if we can.  I lost my job right before Christmas, so we have a renewed committment to learn to do these things ourselves.  Nothing like inspiration, right?!

The issue - Her fan blows, but there's no heat until the temp reads about 190F.  Then, about an hour later, you're comfy, but never hot.  The other issue is air is blowing from every vent no matter which position we select.  We also have the foam insulation blow out of the vents at us periodically.  If we close the vents, there is whistling, so we know air is still getting through.

Is the issue two-fold? 
1)Is the thermostat stuck open, thereby never letting the warm air build up to be used in the cabin? Is it behind the wheel and pwr steering pump?
2)We understand there is some weather stripping located somewhere that has obviously decayed over the years and needs to be replaced.  We just can't find any documentation on this so we know how much disassembly is needed to get to the affected area.  Any help?

So, might that mean that there's no connection to the t-stat? 

We have been told a littttlllle bit about the door flaps, but trying to find clear instructions as to how to get to them to see if this is within our skill level.  If we have to take the whole dash apart, I'm not sure.  We want to, but not at the expense of breaking soem delicate plastic and having to replace something unnecessarily.

Thanks, Nick.  Hopefully, you're right and some others will chime in.

Take a peek under the hood and see if you can see where the thick hoses run through the firewall. I would imagine they are more to one side or the either. Look under the dash where you see them go through and you will probably see plastic duct work- or a cover panel. I don't blame you for not wanting to risk breaking plastic, but under dash parts are probably more likely to be secured withs screws than snap on tabs, so you should be able to see a way to get in there.

Looking at the link, page 4 appears to hold most of your info with the diagram. It looks like the majority of the unit is above the passenger's feet with the heater core/ control flaps behind the radio area. Id peek up there and see what you can see. The actual repair is rarely the trouble; its usually getting there that takes hours of work. Slow and steady

And if you do have to do any disassembly, check the obvious ways in first, like ashtrays, glove box (or do ya'll have a glove box?) or other things that might just pop on/off. These items usually hide the first screws you have to remove.

i would not attempt to get into the dash yourself,  check the hoses going to the heater core at the firewall when the car is hot, if both hoses are similar temps and hot then you have coolant to the heater core and the problem could be the blend door in the heater box,  also i have seen poeple mix up the cables when the put the controls back in and the blend doors do not work right, taking the heater box out that contains the blend door is a task

Thanks everyone!  That's why we came here to ask.  We wanted to know if this was something very simple, or way beyond our skill level once we got into it and had no way to return.

Rick, no worries.  We had wanted to do that stuff ourselves, I just didn't want to break anything in the process.  Maybe we need to stick with learning how to do oil changes and simple maint. first. 

This vent stuff, however, I think I'll leave to you when you have time.  Hopefully, Mark will be working again by then and the timing will work out.  In the meantime, there's always the Carhartt option.