Let's try Ford now.

[Chris GTO TT]

I have a button. The button must work.

In all seriousness, I don't even know for sure if I'm going to install it. It'll depend heavily on what it'll cost to have the AC system recharged and whether I want to take the risk of messing with it at all. But for ~$65 I wasn't going to pass it up.

Also yeah I understand.

[Jeff V.]

I'm annoyed at the guy at the checkout. He made it a point to notice I had removed both cores and the blower motor. Then he tried to charge me for a complete HVAC assembly anyway. I had to pull up their pricing page and show him an "HVAC case" was only $32.99. He honored that, and then dinged me for 2 actuator motors at $15 each.

I still win. There's 4 of them.

I also got a smooth hockey puck style GPS antenna and wire. I guess at some point I'm going to drill into my roof.

That truck also had a really nice sliding rear window. I don't know if I want to try cutting it out though. I can get one from a full service junkyard for about $130.

[DCIV]

Dude. You can do the ac. I redid the wife’s condenser. It’s not hard.


Coop

[Jeff V.]

No, I can't. It's R-1234yf. It's mildly flammable and requires special handling. Shops charge a lot to recover and recharge it. My AC works awesome right now. I don't know if I want to risk screwing it up.

Part of why I bought this was to see if I could split the case without venting the evaporator. Based on what I had to go through to get the old evap core out at the junkyard, that's not possible. I haven't completely given up on that idea though. But it's not promising.

[aaronatstate]

No, I can't. It's R-1234yf. It's mildly flammable and requires special handling. Shops charge a lot to recover and recharge it. My AC works awesome right now. I don't know if I want to risk screwing it up.

Part of why I bought this was to see if I could split the case without venting the evaporator. Based on what I had to go through to get the old evap core out at the junkyard, that's not possible. I haven't completely given up on that idea though. But it's not promising.

How different is the auto one from the manual one?

Like does the manual one have like I drilled holes where the blend door actuators mount etc.?

Surely the main parts of the system have got to be similar in size and locations of things.

[Jeff V.]

As far as I tell from stuff like eBay auctions, the external case is the same. It's just the dual zone unit has 2 blend doors with independent motors.

This is what the blend doors look like. It's from a TSB for the doors binding up. I can't find a picture of a single zone case opened up, but I'd guess the doors are just splinted together in the middle so they can be driven off a single motor.



What really sucks is the heater core can be taken out from the top without disturbing the AC. There's a dedicated access panel. The whole thing just comes out like a cartridge. It might be possible to pull the heater and then pull the top of the case off while it's still in the truck, but there are a ton of screws holding it together. I don't think there's any way to get to all of them while it's up against the floor and firewall.

[Jeff V.]

This shows how it sits in the truck, and the 21 screws holding the case halves together. There's also screws for the floor duct snout, the actuator motor, and the blower motor. If I was going to try to keep the bottom half in the truck while I take the top half off, there's screws for the recirc door assembly, the mode duct assembly, the heater core cover and a retainer for the heater pipes.



It's a lot of damn screws. The one in the very bottom of the blue diagram may be completely inaccessible due to the shape of the firewall.

[aaronatstate]

Do the ac lines going through the firewall have enough play to loosen it up and get to the 1 million screws?

I also I wouldn’t worry too much about the flammability of 1234yf. It’s not as flammable as propane and they let you carry that around in 20lb containers

Just don’t let it get close to open flame, cause if it does burn the by products are bad news.

[Jeff V.]

It was more about the cost involved in paying someone who invested in the special recovery equipment. I'm not going to just vent it.

[DCIV]

The Tahoe was 1234yf. You can too. Maybe not recover it. But ya know….it just could….be empty.


Coop

[aaronatstate]

It was more about the cost involved in paying someone who invested in the special recovery equipment. I'm not going to just vent it.

I get it. But technically it’s better for the environment than 134a or even CO2… But I get it still.

[Jeff V.]

I have a bad track record with AC work. I'm skeered.

My track record with fiberglass is improving a tiny bit. I added another layer and this time I wasn't shy with the hardener. It's much better and the surface is more uniform. I'm really hoping it'll be close to invisible under the final fabric layer.

[Jeff V.]

Christmas Eve is a day for arts and crafts apparently.

It's finally time to measure some fabric and spray some glue.



The new grill in the background is not mine. We went to pick it up for one of Vira's friends.



This was an immense pain the ass. Thanks to the deep draft angles near the roof console, it took a lot of work to get this laid down without any creases. Fortunately the fabric and the glue were very accommodating when it came to adjustments. Still, it was nerve wracking.





Overall I'd give it an 8 out of 10. I've only done this once before. That was on my Stealth, and it was a lot easier because it was mostly flat. It doesn't help that the spray bottle for the glue was basically disintegrating while I used it. It was spraying mostly ok but it was also dribbling quite a bit. You can see the splotches in the 3rd pic. It's not perfect, but given the circumstances, I'm pretty happy with it. The fabric color and the harsh florescent light highlights every little imperfection in it. I think it'll look good once it's in the truck.

[aaronatstate]

I think you did an exceptional job!

[tabasco122]

very nice man

[vr4]

Close to how I pull them. Unbolt as you did but I'll pull the passenger side of the dash back and rest it on the seat.

I'd you have 134a it won't be that bad. If it's yf.... Buckle up

[DCIV]

Why do you say yf hold on?


Coop

[Jeff V.]

Mostly finished it up yesterday. I still have some plastic trim to put back in, but that'll be easy. I left it off in case I needed to troubleshoot anything. So far everything is working perfectly. There were a ton of module communication faults from the few times I turned it on without having everything hooked up, and there was a crash code in the passenger seat occupant sensor that had me a little worried, but it all cleared without issue. I'll give it a couple days and scan it again, but I'm not anticipating any problems.







I have a black roof console, but it has the switch for the power sliding rear window. The color match between the new fabric and the visors is pretty damn good.

Overall I'm thrilled with how it came out. The heated seats work nicely. They won't leave grill marks like the Audi does, but I haven't seen any American car that will. Vira said it was 'acceptable' so I guess that's as good an endorsement as one can get. Haven't tried the cooling function yet. I think the prior owner may have been a big guy. The bottom cushion feels a bit flat compared to my old seats and the passenger seat. I may take it apart and see if it's possible to bend the frame back or something.

Other than that they're comfortable and grippy and they look great. The center part of the seat looks a little scuffed but that's just because it's microfiber. If I smooth it all in one direction it looks fine.

I think I might try to do this for the center console. https://www.ebay.com/itm/185741886352 I tried using a red fabric marker on the gray thread and it just came out a dingy brown. I did the steering wheel and headliner, so a console lid should be a piece of cake.

[Chris GTO TT]

That's awesome! I'm glad it all came together!

[aaronatstate]

Could you grab a lariat bottom cushion from a pick and pull and just swap the seat cover over to it?

Looks really good and now definitely 1 of 1 in the world.