Adding Air Conditioning to 79 SC
 

I just bought a new low mileage 1979 SC Targa. I am looking for any ideas for economically adding an AC system. I am open to scavenging from another car or any other ideas or experience anyone may have on this issue. Please help me - it's gonna be a hot summer!

911Blast

There are alot of folks that take the A/C system off for weight reasons etc.

Some might even come forward and offer it for low dollar on this board.

Get a rotory compressor (not an old york type) and then add a fender well condensor to a stock setup and you should do fine.

might as well get some new barrier hoses and run 134

Blast;
Before you begin you may want to purchase our host's book "101 Projects for Your Porsche 911" and read his general comments about air conditioning on a 911. Even the dealer installed systems and the early factory installed systems leave much to be desired in terms of function and efficiency. I think that’s why a lot of 911 A/C components are removed and left to rot in the corner of their owner’s garage. I'm in the same boat you are. I live in an area that is humid in the summer and my '74 Coupe has no air conditioning so it’s something I could really use.
I have looked into just purchasing all the used components and then attempting to install them but one thing keeps me from doing that. I could get it installed but I don't know a blessed thing about making an air conditioning system work the way it’s supposed to. You can find plenty of A/C components on the Used Parts forum here and on Fleabay. But after talking about this to a mechanic who is a friend and does plenty of work on A/C his suggestion is that I could wind up with a whole lot of inexpensive but unusable junk as A/C components left unused for any length of time dry out, sometimes corrode and require expensive parts to fix. He never uses any rebuilt or salvage components in his A/C repairs because he feels the parts are simply too suspect.
I'm going to look into some of the other alternatives that are advertised in Excellence magazine and see what the costs are for an entire new system. I suspect that some of the aftermarket suppliers have had the advantage of hindsight and are putting together component systems that work much better than the original dealer or factory systems.
Although you are on the right track as this forum is a great place to search and see what others have done. I’ve solved a lot of my other 911 problems here. Best of luck.
Ventana

Had a lot of factory AC's
 

I have owned quite a few 911's. I have replaced condensers, dryers and etc for more times than I care to count. I have used Wayne's info over the years and have had much success. However, I have actually gotten so frustrated with one factory system (81) that I removed it and used the condensor for target practice with a 44.

I was hoping that there was something out there that might be able to be scavenged from another type of vehicle or that I could build.

Best regards,
911Blast

i have the system i pulled off my car. most of it. pretty much everything but the hoses... yours cheap.

and i know a guy selling a new griffith system, new compressor, new barrier hose, etc. he is asking somewhere like $900. you may need to have an existing system to use his. i think he only planned to upgrade his, so you will need to already have some components in place.

might be cheaper to buy another car with a working A/C and drive that for the really hot days.

I took the step-by-step approach.

My SC came with the factory stuff. Rather than bankrupt myself (and since I like to 'take the edge off' on hot humid days when I take the Porsche to dinner and dont' want to soak my clothes) I have been going at it one or two components at a time.

First: compressor/R134A. Next, other components (evaporator, receiver/dryer). Third, barrier hoses. (but in my case I combined 2 & 3 in two steps : 1 - purchase the parts, receiver/dryer, evaporator, barrier hoses , 2 - put them in this week. I spread out the cost of the parts and the work into 2 stages.

I can't comment on starting with nothing in the car. In about a week I'll be able to comment on how the system works when upgraded completely. Later in the summer I'll appreciate having done it.

I'll try posting later. It looks like our host is having lots of problems with his server.
Ventana

Having done this twice now, I would not use the words "economical" and "add workable air conditioning to a 911 that didn't have it before" in the same sentence. Even if you do it all yourself there is a lot of work (and tools) involved to do a quality ("non-hack") job and expensive parts to round up and buy. I would be amazed if one could do it for less than a $1000 for parts and outside services. One has to carefully go through the factory hardware people have pulled off their cars as much of it was damaged during the typically less than careful removal. I will estimate only 1/3 of the used factory type evaporator/blower housings are intact; often drain pipes, intake openings and upper/lower housing joint clip bosses are broken due to ignorance on the part of the person removing the equipment. Some tasks people fail to envision when thinking about adding A/C to a non-air conditioned car: changing pulley on the engine (one has to remove the muffler, some rear engine sheet metal and rear mount bar and console), moving the ignition coil, cutting a hole in the front trunk for the auxiliary condenser, cutting the holes between the cab and the smuggler's box (Porsche used very high quality sheet metal so it's tough to cut through - envision cutting a clean 3-1/2" diameter hole in a piece of heavily cold worked sheet metal curved in three dimensions), adding the controls to the console, running the new wiring and then there's making all the brackets people lost when removing the parts from their cars as many of the older A/C related parts are NLA from Porsche.
There's a reason one gets $4000 estimates by shops to do this task.

Jim;
I inquired about what it would take to install A/C on my '74 Coupe with the folks at Griffith's and their remarks closely mirror yours. Their estimate on parts is $3,500 plus 40 hours of labor. They provided me with a list of the parts and the basics of how to go about the installation. You are right, it would not be a walk in the park.
I see now why most people that want A/C on their Porsche purchase a Porsche equipped with A/C.

Ventana

Sell the coupe. Buy a Cabriolet. It would be cheaper.

A cabriolet is not a solution for deep summer in many places.

True. I once rented a convertible in Georgia once. Big mistake.

PBH;
Sorry, the Coupe is a keeper for sure. Kind of a family heirloom but the next 911 I get (and there will be another) will have A/C without a doubt. If I had loads of disposable income and time I would not rule out going the way Jim Sims did and install it myself but right now there are lots of other improvements I could make to this Coupe that it probably needs more than A/C. The A/C would simply make it more fun to drive here in the Midwest.

Ventana

I wasn't entirely serious. I think you need to bite the bullet and get A/C if you want to drive that car all summer.