Who needs cold air anyway...?

Well, I did the A/C delete yesterday. This is an old R12 system that was never converted to R134. I checked the low-pressure side for refrigerant, but there was nothing. I'm sure it leaked-out long ago... It's becoming more obvious every day that even in 1975, cars were designed to be put together, not taken apart. Even with the TSM handy, finding bolts and attachment point isn't always easy. I did manage to take 42 pounds of stuff out of the engine bay... (box o'stuff)...


I wasn't smart enough to take any "before" pictures, but I can borrow a generic "AMC 6 with A/C" pic off of the net and add my "after" pictures.  I haven't even thought about the under-dash stuff yet... that's a battle for another day. When the time comes for safety equipment, I'll worry about removing the ventilation and heating plumbing. Generic AMC 6 with A/C picture...



I still have to relocate the alternator and find a belt that will work. I may need to add an idler pulley or tensioner. The alternator ran off of the A/C compressor via a short belt. I need to line it up with one of the crank pulleys and fit a longer belt or buy a separate belt to the front (A/C) pulley.  


I'll shift gears briefly and see if I can get the broken sway bar bolt out of the threaded insert. Then I can check one more thing off the list... pics to come...

New chairs...!

OK... so when I was still just thinking about a project car, I had a PLAN. Everything was going to get done in a logical order. Nice and clean... the leg bone is connected to the thigh bone... right!

Plans are over-rated...! OK, there is no more plan. My plan was hugely flawed... and besides, "life is what happens while we're busy making plans" anyway. So why scrap the "plan"? Well, for starters, stuff becomes available out of order. Second, needed stuff isn't available when we need/want it... and so it goes. A lesson hard-learned courtesy of the folks at ADDCO. (sorry to keep harping on that)

Anywho... after the swaybar fiasco, I had some cash in my Paypal account. Since money burns a hole in whatever pocket it happens to be in, I decided to buy some replacement seats and crap-can the old factory units (which are nasty). The aftermarket seats aren't Recaro's by any means, but they look decent enough...

These are "universal" fit seats, which means they don't actually fit anything. Hopefully, the AMC frames and mounting holes can be combined with the universal frame kit without too much dicking around. I'm not really at the "install new seats" phase of the project, but the availability coincided with the cash on-hand. I'll post some pics of the old seats/removal/install when I get there. Believe me, these will be an improvement...