Most likely they were going in after a bad heater fan. This is a pretty common and involved job that someone could well have gotten into, then abandoned. I've had it all out before on a couple of cars.

With it apart I would go in and finish the job, or at the very least use a jumper wire to power up the heater fan and listen for screeches and rattles. If it's noisy, replace it while it's easy.

If on the other hand you see coolant all over the place, there could be a bad heater core- this is an additional PITA that needs to be addressed. They don't commonly go bad, probably 100 heater fans go bad for every 1 heater core.

It's really just a big puzzle to put back together, and shouldn't take more than a day to figure it all out. You'll find a couple great big alignment pins, and a couple of 13mm bolts in the corners, and the whole dash will slide back into place. But you need to assess where the heater box is at this point- see what's really been taken apart and make sure it's back together before the dash goes back on.

Another thing to consider is maybe they were trying to fix the windshield wiper linkage- make sure it's all together while you can see it and get at things. It's tough to service with the dash in place.

See if you can pick the brain of the people who have the car, and see if they remember anything about what the guy was tearing it apart for.
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Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: 92 244-M47-208K ::: Bilsteins, Turbo swaybars, Virgos, Lowered, Group A wing, Tach, 6-Disc, Satellite Radio, Keyless Entry ::: Coming Soon: B-Cam!