Please excuse me if this topic has already been discussed and addressed. If so, I could not find the Thread.

1995 Blazer with the 4.3 Vortec engine. It just rolled over 89k miles. I am the second owner.

So, a few days ago, I discovered that the black plastic housing around the air conditioning unit (straight behind the dryer) is badly deteriorated. In fact, it's so brittle that I think it's going to just fall out.

What's the fix with the issue?

 

Replace it with junkyard part in better shape, fix with fiberglass, or make new fiberglass replacement part.

Also the option of deleting the hvac and covering the hole with sheetmetal. Deleting the factory hvac and running a vintage air setup.

 

On the newer models there are two layers. One is an external sound deadening layer that GM put on there that does like to break down over time. The other is the actual HVAC box. The outer layer isn't an absolute necessity. I'm not sure if that is how the '95's are as well.

 

I think mine is doing this too. the outer layer is starting to crumb away.

 

I first noticed the deterioration at the point the AC line(s) comes out of the housing at the dryer......extremely brittle (pieces had fell out). Then, upon further examination I noticed the lower half of the housing to be separated from the upper half, meaning that the connecting tabs are obviously falling apart. I never examined further to see if there was another "layer" or sub-housing.

Additionally, I've also noticed that all the rubber cushions between the body and frame are very deteriorated as well.

Although my 17 year old Blazer looks very "healthy" on the outside, including the interior, and has low mileage, it is obviously dying from "bad" engineering choices in the use of poor quality products ..............very sad~!

 

Let's see some pics of this madness

 

here is a pic of mine

 

Yeah-common... I have been using donkey -dick to fill the spaces,no need to replace assemblies in 15 year old cars and this stuff is very inexpensive,and easily removable when needed and then easily replaced! No it isn't factory,but it works! Can any one really expect a full factory car after 15 years? Not likely! My best to you! Good luck!