Air conditioning

[cravaliat@dingoblue.net.au]

Has anyone installed air conditioning into their fc/fe?  How is it?  Where did you put the air vents?
Just curious, particularly seeing as it so hot at the moment.
Cheers, carla

[Richard Thomas (Guest)]

Carla,
There are two cars in our club (NSW) that have air-conditioning fitted.  Neither of these cars run grey motors.  One has a red motor, the other a 4.4 Leyland V8 in it.  Both have fully ducted air-con.  From memory, Charlie's car has much of the hardware mounted to the back of the driver's side front guard, and has vents that run through the radio grille, under the front seat and out from the rear parcel shelf.  I think Vince's set-up was on either side of the firewall on the passenger side, and reduced the amount of glove-box space considerably.
Both the guys did the jobs themselves, and in neither case was it simple.  If you're seriously considering it, get a couple of quotes from trustworthy shops that specialise in this sort of thing.
cheers RET

[cravaliat@dingoblue.net.au]

Thanks Richard,
I'm not thinking of having it installed any time soon, but there are a few things I want to do to my car, so I figure I may as well do it all together.
The car is already a 161 red motor, so I'll eventually need disk brakes.  However seeing as the engine has to be removed for disc to be fitted I may as well do a few other things like air cond.  Though my car is a wagon so that may make things difficult to air condition, its just the car can get so hot.
However my car is being repaired at the moment by a mechanic whose had the car for two months!!!  So I'm not particularly impressed my mechanics at the moment.
Carla

[Richard Thomas (Guest)]

Carla,
It's not absoutely essential that the motor come out to fit disc brakes, but it does make the job a bit simpler.  I'd have a look at some wreckers for air-conditioning units from early Commodores, since these were red powered.  But you're going to be up against it to keep any wagon cool.  If you've got a loud enough stereo, you can at least leave the rear-window up.  That improves the ventilation enormously, but does make a bit of noise :-)

[cravaliat@dingoblue.net.au]

Hehehe }
Thanks Richard, luckerly we do have a relatively loud stereo We may just have to settle for a simple front seat fan instead.
Thanks, Carla