Early Griff AC
Discussion
neutral 3 said:
Air con will be coming out of my late 500.
Just out of interest if you don’t mind , have you got any plans for it when it’s out ? as retro fitting air con is something I was / am seriously considering and I would think it’s best to fit an original unit if possible ? Many thanks, Doug
DOUGGRIFF said:
Just out of interest if you don’t mind , have you got any plans for it when it’s out ? as retro fitting air con is something I was / am seriously considering and I would think it’s best to fit an original unit if possible ?
Many thanks, Doug
I think the original unit is a large bodge job...Many thanks, Doug
OleVix said:
DOUGGRIFF said:
Just out of interest if you don’t mind , have you got any plans for it when it’s out ? as retro fitting air con is something I was / am seriously considering and I would think it’s best to fit an original unit if possible ?
Many thanks, Doug
I think the original unit is a large bodge job...Many thanks, Doug
DOUGGRIFF said:
neutral 3 said:
Air con will be coming out of my late 500.
Just out of interest if you don’t mind , have you got any plans for it when it’s out ? as retro fitting air con is something I was / am seriously considering and I would think it’s best to fit an original unit if possible ? Many thanks, Doug
neutral 3 said:
DOUGGRIFF said:
neutral 3 said:
Air con will be coming out of my late 500.
Just out of interest if you don’t mind , have you got any plans for it when it’s out ? as retro fitting air con is something I was / am seriously considering and I would think it’s best to fit an original unit if possible ? Many thanks, Doug
Best regards , Doug
I retrofitted ac onto my chim a couple of years ago, the main pain being researching how tvr fitted it to the ac cars and working out how to fit it to mine.
I was lucky to find a chim with ac at a well known breakers yard and bought all the components and laid them out. As was said earlier its all basic stuff, the compressor is Rover V8 standard, the condenser is easy to use buy brand new as is the drier. The fuel cooler is jaguar sourced and I took all the high pressure hoses to a fabricator here and had a whole new set made.
The only bespoke item was supposed to be the heater box but comparing it to the heater only one I took out of the car, it is identical, the only difference being the addition of the evaporator in front of the heater matrix. For some reason these evaporators are also easy to find, tvr parts have them and bonding one into a late model plastic heater box I don't think is beyond the capabilities of someone who is careful.
The only other difference on the box was an ice cut out switch which again is nothing special.
I had it all wired up independently of the look as some of the existing wires were cut out in the engine bay by the PO.
The only thing I couldn't find was the air recirculation flap for the fan but I am still on the lookout for one.
Overall it works very well although the existing ducting is not adequate to get cold air at your face so I used the vent under the dash on the passenger side, and the one in the driver's footwell on the transmission tunnel and fitted ducting and directional vents that come up under the dash and this works well.
If I was doing it again I would ditch the heater box and try to get a one piece compact unit to work under there purely for the better fan and integral controls /recirculation facility.
I was lucky to find a chim with ac at a well known breakers yard and bought all the components and laid them out. As was said earlier its all basic stuff, the compressor is Rover V8 standard, the condenser is easy to use buy brand new as is the drier. The fuel cooler is jaguar sourced and I took all the high pressure hoses to a fabricator here and had a whole new set made.
The only bespoke item was supposed to be the heater box but comparing it to the heater only one I took out of the car, it is identical, the only difference being the addition of the evaporator in front of the heater matrix. For some reason these evaporators are also easy to find, tvr parts have them and bonding one into a late model plastic heater box I don't think is beyond the capabilities of someone who is careful.
The only other difference on the box was an ice cut out switch which again is nothing special.
I had it all wired up independently of the look as some of the existing wires were cut out in the engine bay by the PO.
The only thing I couldn't find was the air recirculation flap for the fan but I am still on the lookout for one.
Overall it works very well although the existing ducting is not adequate to get cold air at your face so I used the vent under the dash on the passenger side, and the one in the driver's footwell on the transmission tunnel and fitted ducting and directional vents that come up under the dash and this works well.
If I was doing it again I would ditch the heater box and try to get a one piece compact unit to work under there purely for the better fan and integral controls /recirculation facility.
I fitted air conditioning to my chimaera over the winter. The biggest problem you will have is getting a evaporator to fit the air box, although Tvr parts show them on there website I brought the last one they had. The compressor connection was also a problem but I managed to sauce these items from America. It was quite tight to get the compressor fittings in, I ended up routing the pipework through the inner wing which keeps it all very neat. I see you are also in Essex if you would like to have a look you are more than welcome.
trev4 said:
I fitted air conditioning to my chimaera over the winter. The biggest problem you will have is getting a evaporator to fit the air box, although Tvr parts show them on there website I brought the last one they had. The compressor connection was also a problem but I managed to sauce these items from America. It was quite tight to get the compressor fittings in, I ended up routing the pipework through the inner wing which keeps it all very neat. I see you are also in Essex if you would like to have a look you are more than welcome.
Thanks. Hopefully if I have an aircon setup I would be interested in seeing the routing of the pipe work. I’m based in Chelmsford.Best regards
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