1976 FJ40 Heater Blower Firewall Cut Out Dimensions, Vintage Air Bracket? (1 Viewer)

[Ackcruisers]

To get my restored wiring harness in my 1976 Colombian FJ40 I had to remove the Vintage Air heater/AC from inside truck. While at it, I wanted to clean up the very rough cut out the installer made to the firewall as shown below. Does anyone have the dimensions of the firewall cutout for the stock blower motor? Any suggestions on how to fix this are welcome.

 

[Ackcruisers]

To leave no dead posts...cleaned up my firewall cut out to reinstall the Vintage Air System. The cut out is not perfect but squared it off with cutting wheel, touched up with primer and paint. The PO installed the systems hardline hoses with no grace between the hose and the firewall metal as shown in image above. I’m not an engineer, but clearly this is not a good approach as the car body, frame, suspension flex and vibrate which would lead to rupture of lines over time.

For those installing a Vintage Air system, I recommend painting the firewall mounting bracket as the factory paint used is not satisfactory. Also, given the variety of firewalls this bracket connects to, the install instructions recommended silicone to fill gaps around the bracket to compensate for the indentations on firewall. Since the firewall is not flush, and I hate smearing silicone, I made custom gasket using combination of 1/8th inch rubber and Fel-Pro. Now the mounting plate fits perfectly with no gaps.