Smallest air con unit?

[diurno]

I’ve been using my 75’ MGB as a daily driver for the last couple of years, it has been slightly modified with a MX5 engine and several other creature comforts (heated seats etc). With the unusual English weather of the moment, it got me thinking could I fit an air con to the car and at the same time eliminate the useless MGB heater. It’s not the best of fun coming out of the car with my top stuck to my sweaty back. I know the MX5 came with an air con so the compressor should be easy to source.

Question is, does anyone know of any small heater/ air con housings small enough to fit behind the dash? I know I’d probably have to cut some part of the bulkhead to fit it but I’m just trying to find the smallest unit out there.

Aware that carbuilders.com have a compact unit but they don’t have any way of directing air flow, and if I was going to do it, I might as well do it properly.

Any ideas are welcome!

[jkh112]

What about the unit that was fitted to the MG RV8 for the Japanese market?
Not sure if you could get hold of a unit but it has been designed to fit in a MGB/R shell.

[996TT02]

Try a lined roof instead, and make sure that you have good insulation around the transmission tunnel. Getting rid of the heater does not sound like a very sensible thing to do when you will be needing that far more often than air con, quite separately from the actual fitting issues.

[E-bmw]

As above, you seem to be thinking you won't need a heater if you get air con, you will still need it.

Your best bet is to seek out a friendly scrappy to go crawl over similar sized cars and find one with air con for inspiration on installation.

[diurno]

Thanks for the replies so far. To clarify, I don’t want to get rid of the heater, I would just prefer to source a unit that combines both a/c and heater function in one housing.

Will definitely look into the RV8 as I hadn’t thought about that!

[Equus]

You might ask the mods to shift your post to the Kit Car forum, as it's quite a common issue for the kit car boys.

Most compact units I'm aware of are those offered by car builder solutions, but there may be others.

[tapkaJohnD]

See Project Binky, Episode 16: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hR1nU9IJsoM

You really ought to watch from Episode 1, but if you are short of time, in this one they start their Cardboard Assisted Design extravaganza to fit a proper heater/Air con about 19 minutes in.

JOhn

[diurno]

Bloody hell thats quite some amount of fabrication and tools! Impressive though

[anonymous-user]

In Asia people use the perudu kancil air con, if they want small, it's what I have in an elan. In Europe I think they are known as nippers.