My center vent repair

dfink · 05:37 PM

Just fixed the center vent vanes in my 85 carrera. A couple were missing and they just flopped around. After about breaking everything I finally figured out how to get the vent out. I know I had read about in other threads so won't cover that. What I did was take out all but three of the vanes on each side. Shoud still be enough to direct the air and have less restriction. I think the factory has 5 so you can't see down the vent. To correct the floppy vanes I made a new control arm. Hope my wife doesn't see this because I used some of the hobby road that goes to her Xmas decorations. The back of the road is black and is just the right thickness. I cut a 1/4 inch strip the width of the road. Worked out to be about a 1/4 overhang on each side of the holes. I just marked the three vanes and after experimenting found a 7/32 [edit: 7/64"] hole works great. I slit the rubber to the holes with the outside slits on one side and the middle slit on the other. That kind of makes the thing stay put better. Just snap/slide the control arm on and presto. It is tight enough the vanes don't flop but still can easily be moved. Works best if you use the middle vane to move the others. PUN: I now have a road to a happy A/C. Hope the rubber doen't get hot this summer and just droop off. I guess if it does then I will need to find a different type of plastic to use. Just went on a basement search for this one. I am sure a harder plastic would have worked better. I also thought about rubber bands but didn't think they would last very long. Sorry no pictures and all put back togeather.

Oracle · 05-26-2005, 09:47 AM

dfink,
No pictures?? C'mon.. Please post pictures I'd like to see your work. In my case I cut a CD jewel box to replace a couple of flaps but looks kind of dodgy... So I'm looking for ideas.

-J

dfink · 05-26-2005, 10:14 AM

Sorry still no pics but I did redo the repair. Thanks Oracle for the suggestion of a CD case. I was looking for a disk in my shop and found the perfect type of plastic. I found it before I read your post but still nice to know I am not the only scrounger. The CD case is one of the softer plastic type not the hard clear ones. I was worried that the rubber road I used the first time would get real soft in summer. I think this plastic will work much nicer and is the same thickness. It is clear opaque but still doesn't look to bad. I suppose it could be painted. If I get a chance I will pop out the vent and take some pictures. Probably late tonight. I think the removal of the extra broken vanes is going to help air flow alot. A/C is waiting repair should be tommorrow. The reciever dryer in the front wheel well actually got a rust hole and blew out. :"Hey why is there smoke coming from the front of my rear engine car????" "Hey you must have a tire leak there is a hissing by your tire."

dfink · 05:38 PM

now some pictures.

First picture is how the vent looks installed. I really need to dust the dash geeze.

Second is the back of the vent with control arm installed

Third is just an example of how the hole looked agin 7/32 [EDIT: 7/64"] and the base is angled to help it snap on.

howie944 · 05-26-2005, 10:26 PM

Its really nice to see someone being creative and fixing something as opposed to replacing it. For a suggestion on the plastic (I did this a long time ago) try a CD jewel case and cut the vanes from the black part of it. A regular or heavy duty paper clip will work great to make the piece that connects the vanes. Good luck.