Plugged front condenser blower holes

Jameel · 01-15-2018, 05:53 AM

Spent a couple hours the other morning with my brother removing the front AC condenser and plugging the resultant holes in his car. The AC in this car was partially removed last year, so we're just finishing up the process. Here's what we came up with.

The hole on the floor was the easy one. Ran some new weather stripping around the opening and painted up a 22 gauge piece of steel to cover the hole. Nothing complex here.

The hole in the front bulkhead was another story. We couldn't quite figure out the best way to seal this off. We eventually decided to fab a piece of steel that matched the profile of the grommet, then attach it with a clamp arrangement, the same way the torsion bar access covers attach to the rocker panels. The clamp is 1/8" thick steel and uses a 6mm bolt press fit into the clamp. The piece was a little tricky to bend since the step is larger on one side of the hole, but it was pretty simple actually. For a good seal we kept the grommet in place. This area sees some wetness in the rain, its right behind the gap between the bumper and valence. Because we couldn't put a lot of torque on the nut (due to the compression of the grommet) we simply added another nut as a stop nut.

It's really clean up there now, and with the condenser fan gone, there's room for a 944 jack to reside. If we ever want to put the AC back, these will come off in less than a minute.

Uwon · Uwon's Garage

Nicely done!

BullStandsAlone · BullStandsAlone's Garage

wow - quality job.

Dr J · 12-17-2018, 02:00 PM

Very nice.

Quick question. Does this not pressurize the frunk as the air rammed in has nowhere to go and result in gages popping out?

SpyderMike · 04:22 PM

Not on mine. The forward intake hole is behind the bumper and doesn't get ram air. I covered the bottom outlet hole but left the front inlet hole open (for now).

Snitzler · 12-17-2018, 04:33 PM

I did the same for the bottom hole but haven't attempted the upper hole. BTW you can disassemble the washer pump and clean out all the green. It can be restored to work and look like new. My washer pump looked as green as yours.