With the ac finally working I can plumb up the vent hoses. There are 8 outputs in the classic auto ac unit. The 4 rear outputs are basically for the floor and defog vents and the front are for the dash vents. I have hooked up the defog tubes to the factory VW bug vents. It all works so I have to refit the dash board to finish everything up.

With the radiator redesign complete I can now finish the air conditioning. I finished locating the drier and building the last 2 AC tubes. It’s all a tight fit, hopefully it will work OK. After putting in all the “o” rings and sealing up everything I am now bulling a vacuum to insure that there are no leaks. So far so good.

Now with the radiator installed and functioning, I need to seal off the front nose compartment. I am using thin aluminum panels to close in the sides of the radiator and an extruded aluminum angle to close in above. All the hot air will now be forced through the front opening under the bottom of the nose piece. So far so good.

Now that the radiator and AC condenser have been married together, I can put everything back together. I had to remake some of the brackets to hold the overflow bottle and power steering reservoir in a higher position than before. With the radiator filled and the car running again, I must now seal the nose of the front compartment from the foot-box area. I will install three aluminum panels to accomplish this.

Building a shroud for the radiator fan should insure maximum air flow through the cooling fins. It is a slow process but I want the shroud to fit perfectly. I mounted the fan to the shroud first to make sure that nothing was in a bind. I then cut out the opening and mounted it to the radiator and condenser assembly. It fits, so now I must relocate the power steering fluid can and also the overflow bottle.

I have been waiting on some parts to arrive for the redesign of the radiator assembly. The car starts to get a little bit too warm on hot days here in Dallas. The redesign starts with a large 2 core Griffin radiator and a rear mounted AC condenser. I am also building a shroud for the new 3600 CFM fan unit from FR dynamics.

The dashboard is slowly coming along. I have fit the MR2s gauge package into the VW bug dashboard. I have also finished installing all 3 aftermarket gauges as well as the AC controls and vents. Now I just have to test fit it back into the car.

With the dash panel figured out, I can start to position the MR2’s gauge package. I will use the MR2’s gauges by modifying the gauge surround. I am fitting the gauge pod behind the new aluminum dash panel and cutting out an opening to match. It’s tight but I think I can make it work.