Why don't my heater get hot

The question is more involved than that, of course. 71 Dart, 225 /6. Just replaced thermostat and flushed the cooling system. Temp gauge reads 170 and both heater hoses are plenty hot. this car had a/c when I got it but it didn't work so I took it all off. looking under the hood, It's like it never had a/c. Under the dash is a different story. It has the push button controls but they are no good. I need to figure out how the heater temp control works. If I could just run a remote choke cable to adjust temp I would be happy. I'll go even further. If I can just get the heater to blow as hot as possible I'll wire the lever in place and put a shut off valve in the heater hose under the hood. Whatever, I'm easy. I'm not trying to restore the car, just wanna get warm. My fan blows good, btw.