A/C Heater controls

Like most stuff on this dash, the A/C Heater controls were really fubered. The vacuum switch was physically broken and my attempts to disassemble and repair it failed. It worked better than before but just didn't operate smoothly enough to reuse. If you've never been inside of one, they're pretty interesting. You can still buy them new from the local parts stores but fortunately I had one from a donor.

A guy in the neighborhood has a '71 Dodge Polara parked next to his house that he plans to demolition derby next summer. It was in pretty good shape and it's a shame, really, to waste a perfectly good car. But since he plans on gutting everything and literally throwing it away he let me salvage parts from it for free. (When he's done destroying it I'm welcome to salvage the drive train). I pulled most of the dash and the heater control has the same vacuum switch as my original. It works very smoothly so I swapped it in.

Swapped in a vacuum switch from donor

The heater blower switch was siezed. There were obvious signs of overheating and when I opened it to see if I could salvage it, it crumbled apart. Most of the wiring in the heater related circuits show signs of too much current flow at some point. I don't know what someone was doing but would explain, in part, why the dash is such a mess. In any case, since the Polara switch is different , I had to replace it with a new one.

Original switch is toast

With some touch-up with a silver paint pen, the A/C Heater controls look like new again and should actually work now.