Well, it's been a while again. mostly due to an absence of anything interesting going on here. Nevertheless, I better post something to keep my thread from withering away.
I've mentioned before that my new/old Mustang lacks air con which for me is a must, so i was a little bit excited to be able to go pick up my air con kit today after a couple of months of waiting for it to come in. Here's the proof in the form of a fairly boring pic of some boxes.
As you can see, I went with Vintage Air. There are a number of other companies making kits for classic cars including Classic Auto Air and Old Air Products. They all have pretty good reps. I put a Classic Air kit in the previous Mustang and both fitting it and its performance were fine. That was a less complicated set up with just an evaporator hung centrally under the dash.
Because my new fastback has an original centre console that wouldn't work which meant i was needing a kit that had the outlets separate from the evaporator, and that replaced the original heater box for an integrated HVAC system like a modern car (but in reality, without the V, that being what the windows are for). The other major consideration was that with the car being so original I am extremely reluctant to be drilling new holes or cutting the car to fit anything. After looking closely at the installation instructions for all options, this led me to VA which unlike the others, just uses the large original firewall opening the original heater fan pokes through, without modification or the drilling of any new holes in the firewall. This has the added advantage of freeing up the two 1 inch holes the original heater hoses run through, for which the kit supplies block off grommets. i will be able to use one of these at least to run some additional wiring for other things I have planned through the firewall. I will have to grit my teeth and drill some holes for the drain tube and for the lines to pass through the radiator support but if the car had original factory air it would have such holes anyway so I guess I can live with that.
There's a fair bit of work involved in fitting this and I don't expect to get it done until Winter sets in here and the opportunities to take the car out are fewer so that having it off the road for a while is less of a wrench, but we should be good to go when the weather starts warming up later in the year. I can probably do some of it without having it off the road for more than a day or so, like fitting the condenser and compressor, but the tricky bits of removing the old heater box, fitting the new integrated unit, running ductwork etc. will take me a while.
This is the kit I got.
https://vintageair.com/1964-1-2-66-mustang-gen-5-surefit-complete-kit-with-deluxe-control/
That USD price became about twice as much in Australian dollars, what with the exchange rate and shipping. Given the cost and the bulkiness of the packages, I decided to order it from a local agent so that dealing with any problems now or in the future is a bit easier. I could have sourced it from the US and saved a very small sum as the local agent has to make a bit of margin on it, but the saving wasn't enough to offset the desirability of dealing with a local business. Fortunately, this supplier was here in Melbourne, albeit about 40 minutes from me, so I was able to go pick it up today and avoid any further shipping costs.
Just as an aside, going to get it made me miss my old truck, The Eyesore (new readers see post 928). I got the supplier to give me the box dimensions and took the gamble it would all go in my BMW daily, which it did but only just. As a PHEV, the boot (trunk) space is a bit restricted due to the battery bank.
While on the subject of the Bimmer and the dearly departed Eyesore, with the passing of the latter I had to get a towbar on the former so I could use my box trailer. Out of interest I made enquiries with the BMW dealer about a genuine factory one but didn't really have any intention of going that route as they would have charged a lot more than an aftermarket option. It turned out they couldn't supply one for my car anyway. They had them for the petrol only 330i. but not my 330e even though the service manager and I both couldn't see any actual difference between the cars in terms of where and how it would be mounted.
So I went to an aftermarket outfit that specialises in Euro cars and has a good rep. The guy there said he'd never fitted one to a 330e but also couldn't see why the 330i one wouldn't fit fine. It did. They also fitted a genuine BMW trailer wiring module. Cost and arm and a leg, of course, but had the dealer done it all four limbs would have been sacrificed. However, this is where the fun starts.
The day after I had it fitted, I got in the car and pressed the power button and immediately got warning or error messages on the dash. like this.
Note that this was without anything plugged into the electrical socket at the back of the car. it didn't do it every time the car was started, only when it had been sitting for quite a while like overnight, I assume something to do with systems shutting down completely rather than just hibernating or something. This was why there was no sign of the issue when they tested it after fitting the bar and wiring module. To add to the mystery, it all worked fine (but still with warning messages) when the trailer was connected, including automatically activating the towing mode function which disables some of the proximity warning sensors and adjusts the hybrid drive parameters. To cut a long story short, the supplier made several attempts to resolve the issue without success and conceded defeat. Take it a dealer, he said, and if they can sort it we'll refund you what they charge you.
I didn't get around to that until a few weeks ago when the car was due for its annual service. The dealer ended up keeping the car for two days and consulting some boffin in Germany about it. The end result was that the fitment instructions for the wiring module that the guy had followed didn't include an additional fuse required somewhere in the system. However, while the service guy at the dealer was happy to sort it out, BMW Australia vetoed them doing any work on it while the car was under warranty as they'd be mucking around with a third party's work. They did give me a detailed written explanation of what was needed, which was way over my head, for me to take to the fitter. i did this, the problem has been solved and the fitter refunded me the dealer charge for the diagnosis. a satisfactory outcome. Geez modern cars are complex, give me 60 year old dinosaurs any day.
In other news, I am pleased to announce the recent arrival grandchild number seven, which puts the girls back in the majority. and also that we have just booked to go to Canada for a month or so in September so really looking forward to that.
I'll try not to leave it so long next time
I would love to own either of the convertibles that are at 3 and 4 pictures after your car.
