Oil Cooler Feed - Tips/Tricks?

No sooner did I get my snowflakes on, and something had to go wrong...

Stopped for gas, everything was good. went to get back in the car, and there was about 1/2 gal of antifreeze covering the parking lot. I pulled a Maguyver, and rerouted the oil cooler feed and return so that they were both disconnected,and pulled and plugged the lower intake hose with the bolt from the door striker that I was going to intstall this week...

So I made it home (temp read really hot, is this because of the intake line being removed from the oil cooler "T" and plugged?).

I went out yesterday morning with intentions of fixing it, but took one look at it and found other stuff to get done around the house.

Is there a good way to get to it? It's the little short elbow on the firewall side of the cooler. I am going to replace both of them anyway though. Is it any easier from below, or above?

I am not looking forward to doing this, but thought maybe you all could offer some insight that may make the job easier. Also, are the hard lines painted black from the factory in '85? If so, I will wire brush them and paint them while I am at it...

-Shane