Heater matrix cover removal - help pls

Hi, is there any way to get the bottom heater matrix cover out without actually removing the rest of airco duct and the dashboard?

Service manual says to just undo the clips and lower the bottom heater matrix cover and slide it out, but there is some ECU right under the box, mounted with long bolts welded to chassis. Of course that ECU is not mentioned in service manual. There is no sufficient gap left there.

I tried to retrofit PTC heater (auxiliary electric heater), and removing the bottom heater matrix cover does not seem possible without removing half of the car incl dashboard.

As a result, the heater and the bottom cover are now listed on Ebay :( but if you can help with hints how to remove the bottom heater matrix cover out , I'd give it another go.

I planned to use it as windscreen heater mostly, with temp switches to reduce the current when not needed, so weaker alternator is not an issue.

(I posted this in Roomster forum but no one is able to help there, hopefully better luck here)

Edited 10 January, 201313 yr by dieselV6