67 GTO a/c vacuum actuator replacemrnt

On the way to repairing something else, the underhood vacuum actuator on my 67 GTO convertible got broken/damaged. Old plastic,thick thumble thumbs and "uh oh" don't mix. The upshot of this is that I purchased a replacement vacuum actuator from Ames and set about replacing it. Which is as far as I've gotten today. The vacuum actuator is mounted on the heater fan box and plastic ducting under the hood on the passenger's side. It looks as if the only way to get to this part is to dismount the fan blower housing and connected plastic ducting ,take it out and replace the part. Which, because of all the ac parts being on the same side ,looks as if the inner fender liner will have to come out.
I've looked at the comments about this on our board because the 66 & 67 Skylark ac vacuum actuator setup is very similar to the GTO. If anyone has made this same repair before, I'd appreciate your guidance on the how-to and step sequence involved in making this r & r.
Just another comment/observation. Why oh why did GM engineers mount the blower fan motor upside down at the back under this assembly? How many of these GM A-bodies which have had a fan motor/squirrel cage replaced are running around missing the screw on the fan housing closest to the firewall? Or have a round hole in the inner fender where a cut out metal circle has dumdum seam sealer to hold it in place where the inner fender was cut for access. Thanks y'all. I don't want to make any mistakes that I could avoid, so I'd appreciate advice from anybody who has done this before.

 

Not sure how my experience relates specifically to your car needs but I'll pass along my option for you. I just did the heater core/box removal on a 71 AC car with similar obstructions to the "nasty" corner attaching nuts behind the inner fender. My car has had a recent paint job and I was concerned about damaging paint during the fender removal procedure. I went back to my local body shop and worked out their help in pulling the fender(s)/hood to gain access. They agreed to allowing me to access the car to remove the failed parts after fender removal (some shops cant or wont do this). I had taken out the interior AC duct work , glove box radio , etc. prior so there would be minimal lost time in the shop. The shop hours for fender R/R was under 10 total and it was well worth it to me to not have to cut holes or chance paint damage. If you explore this removal option it saves a whole bunch of headaches, cuts, bruises and sore body?!! For me, it was soooo much easier.

 

Thanks for your suggestion, John. I wouldn't have thought of this. There's a small body shop I do business with that I can talk to about this. Archie