Thanks Pat for your reply and Jonny for confirming the new fittings.

The car is a 1981 RoW 930 with factory A/C. ~87k miles on it. Like many of these cars it's obviously been "gone over" a few times. Lots of stray wiring, odd "fixes", etc. None of the dash illumination works, the clicky-selector ring for autoheat has no clicks, just spins freely. There's a mysterious additional black rocker switch right near the mirror-side selector and the sunroof switch, I haven't figured out what it does yet. But it's a lot simpler than my 928 :-)

Anyway I started excising the remnants of the old A/C system today. The car arrived with the compressor in a box on the back seat, so I began with the evap/blower assembly in the smuggler's box. Discovered I had to disassemble the passenger's floorboard but otherwise didn't have much trouble getting it out. No need to evacuate any refrigerant, which saved some effort!

Also futzed around with the dash levers. The main slider for the blend valves is hugely stiff, while the end for the fresh air blower valve isn't actually attached to the flapper. I am told that my heat flapper valves themselves are in good shape but it's unclear if the servo in the autoheat controller is attached to them. The red lever does seem to offer some resistance.

I need to get under the front end to see if the front condenser is still present and if the fan works. If so I will proceed with that option on the same rationale Pat used. I will finish removing the original factory lines, and the rear condenser is still present even though one of its two lines (the one to the compressor, presumably) is already gone.

Once I have a solid handle on what exactly the plan will be, I'll get my order in with Jonny.

I will start a new thread on the adventures of this car but will piggyback on this one for parallelism as needed. So thanks (and apologies!) in advance.

The detective work continues...

I pulled out the carpet and other bits from the luggage bay this morning. I found, worryingly, a rectangular piece of metal held down with a bead of silicone over what was evidently the access port for the (missing) condenser blower, i.e. p/n 911.624.013.01.

This did however explain the presence of a 2-pin connector with no mating friend nearby!

The condenser is still present as is the rock shield under the nose but it's somewhat irritating that the blower was removed at some point in the past.

Anyway I will add it to my list.

While you are removing everything for the new install I would recommend that you label the three Bowden cables and the blend valve connections then remove the entire slider assembly and Bowden cables. There is one bolt/nut that holds the slider assembly in place under the dash. There is also the harness that goes to a connector near the glove box. There are internet sites on how to lubricating Bowden cables. I used the old school method with a sandwich bag and motor oil. After 40 years it really needed an overhaul.

One of the issues I had was figuring out a way to save and reuse the ac bow tie vent on my 80SC that is connected to ducting 10 and 7 in the below diagram.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1626637817.jpg

The large hole in duct 10 was easily closed with some round plastic and JB-Weld. Duct 7 would interfere with the new evaporator blower housing and could not be reused. I came up with a jerry-rig workaround by hacking up a shop vac attachment. It wasn’t pretty but it worked and was hidden by the frunk carpet.

I received a private message from Timmy2 (Dennis Powell) last week. People know him as the go to guy for new replacement harnesses for the 911. Apparently he liked my idea on keeping the ducting for the ac bow tie and he has a 3D printer which allowed him to come up with a much better design for the duct pieces. Timmy2 graciously offered to provide me with a set with no strings attached so I could install it into my car. I was very happy to accept his offer and I would provide him with feedback on my experience. On Friday, I received a package with three pieces of duct work. One was a large end cap to cover the large hole in the smugglers box. The other two pieces were for the bow tie duct work.

As you can see in the below picture his duct part is great and I have no sense of shame by showing my duct and his side by side.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1626638845.jpg

The below picture shows the duct hose I used to connect to the evaporator/blower housing and the duct that Timmy2 designed to connect to the evaporator/blower housing.


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1626639266.jpg



The below pic shows the installation of my duct and connectors. As you can see I had to come straight out of the evaporator/blower and wrap around the break booster and then downsize to the connector.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1626640437.jpg

As you can see below The new ducting is a much cleaner install.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1626640888.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1626641946.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1626641946.jpg

This is very cool and definitely looks more refined. Great work you two. DerPuffinator will experience the same thing. If you don't mind sharing your STL files Dennis I will whip up a set for DerPuffinator. My 77 does not have the bow tie. These might have started in 78.

I’d love to see a set of the 3D files for my upcoming install and I’d gladly contribute to the PCar beer fund…

Ok, I am providing a Dropbox link for 4 different STL files.
One is a ductwork cover for the passenger floor when removing factory A/C
The others are the lower cover for the original bow tie vent.
And the 2 pieces to run the spare outlet on the blower box to the duct under the blower.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gaxbtq844yhz3eo/AACeyuFQCgg2zRgeUPXOGknGa?dl=0

As each car is always a little different, I did not place the mounting screw holes.
Easy enough to mark and drill once you finalize the position.
I made them out of ABS so they are easy to trim and drill to fit. I did have to lift up/spread the rear metal tab under the blower to get it to fit as the base is a little thicker than original.

BTW that is the 40mm hose sold at Pelican that is installed in both Pat and my cars.

Wow that’s fantastic, thanks all, happy to contribute to beer funds as needed!

Jim (fanaudical on the forum) did the autocad on the 2 pieces for making the blower to bow tie area connectors. I made up the 2 really simple ones.. (my skills with Cad are limited)
Happy to share the files with those that have the bow tie fitment challenge. :)

This afternoon I took the car out for a ride in typical Florida summer weather, temp=87F humidity=67%, feels like 94F. The compressor/ECU is set to 5C = 41F. The cabin sensor was reading 16C =60.8F, the evaporator sensor was reading 11C = 51.8F. The small meat thermometer at the center vent was reading just above 50F. When I parked my car in the garage I saw the following at the evaporator/blower. Granted, my home air handler in the garage sweats around the access panels so I am not surprised to see the sweating around the evaporator/blower and ducts in the hot frunk. I think I might try some foam insulated wrap or look for insulated 60mm ducting along with an insulated blanket to add some separation from the rest of the frunk. My drain lines are working since I have a drip and a puddle on the garage floor.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1626729598.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1626729598.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1626729598.jpg

Does that mean the condensation shown is eventually finding the drain? It's probably a bit paranoid, but nobody wants moisture in the frunk...

No, the two drains holes are nipples that are at the bottom of the evaporator/blower to drain the condensation from the cooling coils. The two drain holes are tied together and a hose drains through the bottom of the smugglers box.



http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1626731680.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1626731796.jpg

I have seen similar condensation. This means loss of energy which results in loss of efficiency. I will see about insulating this area.

Thank you Dennis and Jim!

For anyone that needs something like this printed you can upload them to Shapeways and they will print and send you the part. They have quite a few materials to choose from. I just had the adapter under the blower unit quoted at around $50.

There are several services out there for 3d printing. You might also look at Xometry or ask around here on the forum.

closed off in smugglers box
 

Hi Pat,
Is this what you closed off in the smugglers box?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1629849110.jpg

Yes, I closed off the hole you circled. Also, I closed off the hole going into the passenger foot well that held the AC 3 speed control.

Below is a picture of the duct work that goes to the bow tie and the passenger side foot well outlet. As you can see I closed off the the hole left by the old evaporator on the bow tie duct work.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1629850143.jpg

So just ask as we are filling our shopping cart at CR?

I went with xometry and got all four pieces for under $150, tax and shipping.
Will post pics when they arrive via pony express. Might be polka dot.


Anyway, thanks to you, Targa80 and Timmy2 for helping get me “hooked” in this project.