Fantastic, glad it went so well. Yeah, it made me nervous too. The 1x4 did a good job of distributing the weight, but it still depressed the skin somewhat when I was really cranking down on the prybar. Still, no permanent damage.
Took me close to an hour with MEK solvent and a plastic putty knife to get all of the old sealant off, but then I polished it up with some cotton rags and Diamond Brite, and it made a really nice seal for the replacement unit.
In your climate, are you planning on a replacement AC, or just another fan?
(Or, the permanent addition of a baking pan??
)