Date:         Mon, 20 Jan 2003 21:34:57 -0500
Reply-To:     Warren Chapman <vwsyncroguy@YAHOO.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Warren Chapman <vwsyncroguy@YAHOO.COM>
Subject:      Re: Taking out the dash for BEHR unit / Radio relocation

Some further thoughts about the radio location and things to do with the
dashboard out.......

RADIO:

It may be possible to leave the radio in its original location and use a
vent mounted on top of the dashboard.  The center vent is very important
however, especially for the air flow to the driver. It the main source of
air to the driver. The far left vent next to the driver]s door doeesn't put
out much air due to its long distance from the fans and the twisted route
the hose takes to get there.

A company called European Cooler Air in the Dallas area sells and installs
a front AC kit for the Vanagon.  Larry Chase had one installed into his
Syncro and reported about it on Vanagon.com a while back.  ECA has a custom
molded housing for the vent to go on top of the dashboard over the ash tray
hole.  My Behr was already in when I found out about them, but I got one of
their center vent housings.  Problem with it was that it only had one set
of louvers in front, so the air coming out could only be directed to either
the driver or the passenger.  With some work I can adapt my bi=directional
vent louvers from the Behr to fit this housing....but the other problem is
that ECA only uses one hose to this vent where the Behr unit sends two
large ones into a special curved and molded housing that goes behind the
dual vent that fits in the radio slot.  This curved housing helps the air
flow to make the 90 degree turn and come out the vent with force.

Some custom work might be possible to "step-down" the two hoses from the
Behr into a single flexible hose that could be squeezed between the radio
in its proper location and one of these vents mounted over the ashtray
hole.  I haven't had the time to figure it out yet.  The two original hoses
that go to the center vent are large and not too flexible but something
else could probably be used that would be easier to work with and more
flexible.

One idea that I've been considering recently is to "fabricate" two custom
single vent housing out of 2" PVC "elbows".  They could be made to mount on
top of the dashboard and maybe even "swivel" right to left......kind of
like the air vents you see on sailboats.  Paint them with black "crackle
paint" from the local FLAPS to make them look better.  Another company
called Vintage Air (that sells aftermarket AC units and custom parts to the
hot rod industry)makes several styles of round vent louvers that could be
attached to the front of one of these elbows to direct air flow.  Two of
these could be mounted on the dashboard on either side of the radio and it
should be easier to get hoses to them than trying to squeeze hoses between
the radio and the ash tray hole.

CIGARETTE LIGHTER.

The cigarette lighter must be removed.  The hoses coming out of the Behr
evaporator need that space.  I relocated mine down to the upper right
corner of the plastic cover for the heater vents.  I drilled a hole and
epoxied the lighter socket into it.  Also wired another one and placed on
the opposite side just to the right of the driver's knee.

AC SWITCHES:

The hoses coming out of the Behr evaporator also caused a little troube
getting the two round AC control switches back in place.   The went in but
angle a little funny towards the passenger instead of facing front.

OTHER THINGS TO CHECK:

The Heater unit and fan and also your master cylinder and brake reservoir
are exposed nicely....so check them out.

ACCESSORY GAUGES AND GPS:

If you've ever considered installing aftermarket gauges on the dashboard,
this is the time to do it while everything is exposed.  Ditto for a nice
hardwired power source and mount for a GPS.

Cheers,

Warren C.