The exact same thing happened to me last week. My front blower has been
warning me with squeals for about 4 years now so I have no excuse for not
having replaced it except for that dash removal job. I was driving to work
and tons of smoke came out of defrost vents. Scared the crap out of me.  Of
course it was the coldest day of the year and it was 6 AM so I'm driving
down the road with the windows open (due to the smell) and no front heat.
Bring back memories of the '65 beetle.

In any event, I contacted Chris about a blower fan and he says there are new
ones available and I did not know that so I will go that route once I
decipher what I need from the BD website which is a little confusing when
you type in "front heater" for a search term.

If someone wants to point me in the direction of any write-ups for removing
the dash I would appreciate it. A video would be better. If no video is
available I may have to do another one of my famous "how not to" videos for
YouTube.

Thanks,
Bryan