Started a project over the weekend.
Man you can destroy a perfectly decent car in about an hours time!
Good news is I found a partial reason why my heater/AC air flow was so horrible
Plastic piece that secures to the air flow direction door was broken and not allowing the door to move as it should. This allowed air to leak out of all the vents rather than directing it to the correct duct. Hoping I will actually have A/C that blows hard enough to cool me down now (fingers crossed!)
If all goes as planned I should be able to start putting the new gauges & dash back in this evening after work!