Heat not blowing out of the side vents

It's been a while, but I don't believe the dash vents work on the non-A/C cars. Seems like those only have the off-heat-defrost positions on the control and the ducts were different as well, they only have the floor and defrost ducts. Some were set up, so the dash vents worked with the cowl vents by pulling a handle below the dash but I'm not sure on the Torino.

Some connect to the side vents others were just there and went nowhere, but because they made the cars with both A/C and non A/C it was easier to just make the dash the same way. The A/C cars got the ductwork and valving that used the dash vents while the others didn't. They did the same thing with the El-Ranchos.

There should be just the short ducts attached to them, most I've seen stop about 3 inches away from the vent pointing toward the middle of the dash. The ones that hooked to the side vents point the opposite way. If you pull the dash panel off, you can see how they are set up.

The only other thing I've ever seen with them was the bare bones cars were connected into the side panels but worked with the flow through vents but that was in the El Ranchos. I wish there were more survivors from those years. Up here in NY they are either Bondo beauties or rust-free state imports with price tags to match. I sold off my last classic mid-winter.

Was just wondering what you had found if you had the time to check on the vents. If not no problem.

That was common in various vehicles back then. They would make a part to fit the higher-level vehicles and then use it across all models. That was why you had vehicles with radio, heater, and other "delete plates" They punched the holes then blocked the ones off they didn't use. In this case they installed the pieces just to fill the holes.