my evaporator nightmare... just my friggin luck!!

[houtxfdcapt]

I have been putting this car back together for a couple of months, bought it off of a vacant lot, had to track the owner down, whole other story...

anyway, I had some other parts coming and had some time and decided to inspect the evaporator.. sure enough the end plates had bad rust on them and the fins were just about completely clogged. I found a new one and installed it and put the dash back together. I have been driving this car now about three weeks working out some drive-line and fuel delivery issues. Got that worked out so I decided to button up the A/C system. I went to put in the new expansion valve in (never put the old one in from before) and wouldn't you know it the fittings on the new evaporator are IDENTICAL IN SIZE .... feeling my pain yet??


sooo... my questions are:

1. by chance is there an expansion valve that the top fittings are the same size that would go in my car?; or
2. if your looking at the expansion valve installed, is the top left the low side and maybe I could scab the correct fitting on?
3. am I just screwed and need to suck it up and replace the evaporator with the corrected part?

any and all advice is more than welcome! even the laughing, it helps sometimes