installed the Classic Auto Air A/C kit in my 911, would like to share my experience.

[kamaro]

I just finished installing the Classic Auto Air A/C kit, showed in this link :

https://www.classicautoair.com/shop/1977-porsche-911-non-turbo-lhd-air-conditioning-system/

The first step that I took is I called them and talked to a nice gentelman called Dwight, this guy is VERY knowledgeable and super helpful, he never hesitated to stay with me on the phone for about 30 minutes to talk about what will I get and why, sure enough, I placed my order and got the kit shipped out in a bout 4 days which is fast compared to other kits. The kit came in two boxes, one smaller box that has the A/C compressor and its bracket, and one large box that has everything else, the packaging was very good and no broken parts were found. And now for the not so good part of the installation, I will list things that I found not so satisfying about the kit :

- Instructions manual : one of the worst I've ever seen, most of it is talking about the A/C in general, nothing in the manual showed in detail how to fit the evaporator, how to route the barrier hoses, how to fix the dash vents, how to install the compressor bracket .. etc!!, basically, you need to figure everything yourself and things are subject to trial-and-error.

- Barrier hoses are a bit too long to fit properly. I was lucky to have a A/C hose crimper with a few end fittings laying around, so I just trimmed a couple of hoses to fit properly.

- Not satisfied with the quality of the evaporator assembly. I made a mistake of not bench testing it before the install, and when it was switched on it produced a loud noise right away, I had to remove it again and took it apart to found that the squirrel cage fan is touching the case so badly, loosened it and made an adjustment, now its nice and quiet.

- I had to hack the A/C bracket to make it fit properly. it was interfering with the intake tubes and one bolt hole was not aligned properly.

- It has what they call a "Sanden Style" A/C compressor, and not a genuine Sanden unit, which is quite bizarre for a $2500 kit!

- The air duct adapter coming out of the evaporator and into the cabin was hitting the center console upper edge, I had to modify it to make it fit.

Final Verdict :

For $2550, I was expecting much better quality and at least a useful instructions manual. A few years ago I bought a similar A/C kit from Vintage Air for my 1971 Firebird for $1300 and it was better quality and a very good manual to make it an easy enough to install.

But if I look at the bright side, the A/C is blowing cold and I got around 40* vent temp in a 95* day, and this is with a single condenser on the rear lid. Also I had to contact them a couple of times for a tech. support, and Dwight was again very helpful and promptly answered all my questions. buttom line is having a cool 911 cabin made me forget all the hard times passed when I was installing it!. It took me about 4 evenings to completely install the kit, around 20 working hours.

[DaveMcKenz]

40 degree vent temps on a 95 degree day is darn good. Glad you were able to solve your problems. I would probably suffer the same frustrations as you, and forget all the lessons learned by the next time I have a big project.
Good job!
Dave

[1979-930]

Haha. You got instructions. I received the Porsche diagram pages from the shop manual.

I had to assemble the blower assembly and hamster cage myself. It took me a second try to keep it from rubbing. It does not spin perfectly flat and there isn’t a lot of clearance.

They sent me three upper and one lower rear bracket for the condenser. So I had to wait for a second lower bracket.

You’re right. They just need better instructions and a little quality control.

Overall the final product does work great.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[kamaro]

Originally Posted by DaveMcKenz

40 degree vent temps on a 95 degree day is darn good. Glad you were able to solve your problems. I would probably suffer the same frustrations as you, and forget all the lessons learned by the next time I have a big project.
Good job!
Dave

Yeah, I was impressed with the cooling performance with just a single condenser.

[kamaro]

Originally Posted by 1979-930

Haha. You got instructions. I received the Porsche diagram pages from the shop manual.

I had to assemble the blower assembly and hamster cage myself. It took me a second try to keep it from rubbing. It does not spin perfectly flat and there isn’t a lot of clearance.

They sent me three upper and one lower rear bracket for the condenser. So I had to wait for a second lower bracket.

You’re right. They just need better instructions and a little quality control.

Overall the final product does work great.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

But I think its way overpriced at $2550.

[pmax]

Originally Posted by kamaro

But I think its way overpriced at $2550.

The low volume custom moldings is my guess. Price is the same the Mercedes part though the Ferrari unit is less.

[73pcar]

Originally Posted by kamaro

I just finished installing the Classic Auto Air A/C kit, showed in this link :

https://www.classicautoair.com/shop/1977-porsche-911-non-turbo-lhd-air-conditioning-system/

The first step that I took is I called them and talked to a nice gentelman called Dwight, this guy is VERY knowledgeable and super helpful, he never hesitated to stay with me on the phone for about 30 minutes to talk about what will I get and why, sure enough, I placed my order and got the kit shipped out in a bout 4 days which is fast compared to other kits. The kit came in two boxes, one smaller box that has the A/C compressor and its bracket, and one large box that has everything else, the packaging was very good and no broken parts were found. And now for the not so good part of the installation, I will list things that I found not so satisfying about the kit :

- Instructions manual : one of the worst I've ever seen, most of it is talking about the A/C in general, nothing in the manual showed in detail how to fit the evaporator, how to route the barrier hoses, how to fix the dash vents, how to install the compressor bracket .. etc!!, basically, you need to figure everything yourself and things are subject to trial-and-error.

- Barrier hoses are a bit too long to fit properly. I was lucky to have a A/C hose crimper with a few end fittings laying around, so I just trimmed a couple of hoses to fit properly.

- Not satisfied with the quality of the evaporator assembly. I made a mistake of not bench testing it before the install, and when it was switched on it produced a loud noise right away, I had to remove it again and took it apart to found that the squirrel cage fan is touching the case so badly, loosened it and made an adjustment, now its nice and quiet.

- I had to hack the A/C bracket to make it fit properly. it was interfering with the intake tubes and one bolt hole was not aligned properly.

- It has what they call a "Sanden Style" A/C compressor, and not a genuine Sanden unit, which is quite bizarre for a $2500 kit!

- The air duct adapter coming out of the evaporator and into the cabin was hitting the center console upper edge, I had to modify it to make it fit.

Final Verdict :

For $2550, I was expecting much better quality and at least a useful instructions manual. A few years ago I bought a similar A/C kit from Vintage Air for my 1971 Firebird for $1300 and it was better quality and a very good manual to make it an easy enough to install.

But if I look at the bright side, the A/C is blowing cold and I got around 40* vent temp in a 95* day, and this is with a single condenser on the rear lid. Also I had to contact them a couple of times for a tech. support, and Dwight was again very helpful and promptly answered all my questions. buttom line is having a cool 911 cabin made me forget all the hard times passed when I was installing it!. It took me about 4 evenings to completely install the kit, around 20 working hours.

Sent you a PM...really could use your help with some install questions. Thank you.