Creative ideas needed please
Discussion
Now that I have finally managed to retrofit an A/C system in my Chim, the woeful vent piping needs sorting as I can't get that lovely cold air into the cabin effectively. The standard vents in the dash are tiny and restrict the airflow too much to be effective. I understand cars fitted with AC probably have a better duct set up but in mine, it is illogical and inadequate for AC. I don't really care about the heating part as I have never used it.
Starting on the driver's side, I can get loads of air out from the round vent by my left knee, the one to the right of the steering wheel is has a tiny hose going to the front wing which is half the size of the left knee outlet.
The passenger's side, again, tiny outlet by the window, but loads of good air coming out from the round hole directly under the heater box.
So I decided just to use these two, for cool air coming out when the dial is down and the AC is on, and this leaves the dash air only when the dial is up, for demisting in ours 'winter'.
I quickly bodged together two 70mm hoses and 90deg angle pipes to connect to these large vent holes and a nice quantity of air can now come out from under the dash, which works really well but looks awful. The other problem is that when the fan and AC are off, hot air comes through those pipes into the cabin when moving, which I can only assume is coming in from the engine bay into the fan housing some how, and then being pushed through the heater box and out the hoses. So these vents need to be able to be closed.
So can you help me find a couple of round housings (I looked at CBS but they don't have housings), that I can screw to the underside of the dash either side of the centre console, that will be large enough not to reduce the supply pipe line, that can be closed off when not in use (to stop the hot air coming in) and give me two nice looking vents that I can position symmetrically in the corners between the underside of the dash and the centre console.
I tried connecting to the centre vents through a pipe that runs into the box from the driver's side, but that pipe is only 30mm dia and the air feebly came out from the vents which means that vent box can't be closed. The centre vents were initially connected to the fresh air vent with a T piece under the steering wheel but hardly anything came out from them. So I then thought of splitting this between the central vents and the one by the door, but then I lose fresh air, and the passenger side is far too small to stay by itself.
So any creative ideas will be very much appreciated.
Starting on the driver's side, I can get loads of air out from the round vent by my left knee, the one to the right of the steering wheel is has a tiny hose going to the front wing which is half the size of the left knee outlet.
The passenger's side, again, tiny outlet by the window, but loads of good air coming out from the round hole directly under the heater box.
So I decided just to use these two, for cool air coming out when the dial is down and the AC is on, and this leaves the dash air only when the dial is up, for demisting in ours 'winter'.
I quickly bodged together two 70mm hoses and 90deg angle pipes to connect to these large vent holes and a nice quantity of air can now come out from under the dash, which works really well but looks awful. The other problem is that when the fan and AC are off, hot air comes through those pipes into the cabin when moving, which I can only assume is coming in from the engine bay into the fan housing some how, and then being pushed through the heater box and out the hoses. So these vents need to be able to be closed.
So can you help me find a couple of round housings (I looked at CBS but they don't have housings), that I can screw to the underside of the dash either side of the centre console, that will be large enough not to reduce the supply pipe line, that can be closed off when not in use (to stop the hot air coming in) and give me two nice looking vents that I can position symmetrically in the corners between the underside of the dash and the centre console.
I tried connecting to the centre vents through a pipe that runs into the box from the driver's side, but that pipe is only 30mm dia and the air feebly came out from the vents which means that vent box can't be closed. The centre vents were initially connected to the fresh air vent with a T piece under the steering wheel but hardly anything came out from them. So I then thought of splitting this between the central vents and the one by the door, but then I lose fresh air, and the passenger side is far too small to stay by itself.
So any creative ideas will be very much appreciated.
They are sort of what I want but I need something to put them in so I can fix it to the underside of the dash.
A kind of pod really.
Since writing my post I have worked out that the heat coming out of the heater must be the valve not fully closing .
I might try to combine the two centre vents with the drivers side with the drivers footwell but that leaves the passenger side and the heater box vent.
One eyeball on the passenger side would be lopsided but can't think of another way to get that valuable air flow on the passenger side into the cabin.
A kind of pod really.
Since writing my post I have worked out that the heat coming out of the heater must be the valve not fully closing .
I might try to combine the two centre vents with the drivers side with the drivers footwell but that leaves the passenger side and the heater box vent.
One eyeball on the passenger side would be lopsided but can't think of another way to get that valuable air flow on the passenger side into the cabin.
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