Right well time marches on and waits for noone!
Progress has been slow and steady on AC project.
- TX valve has been replaced - painful job. found various types of 0-rings on the old tx valve. some green ones, some black ones, and even some brown ones (viton?). all repalced with new r134a compliant green ones.
- bracket is finished. did have some dramas with it when i first put it on that i had forgotten about the crank angle sensor bracket. had to notch it out of the back (not in photo im afraid). but will be good. in heinsight i probably should have hung the compressor a bit lower but it will still work. fine.
- I bought a TIG welder and have been learning to TIG. Since the new AC compressor has slighlty different sized pipes than the old one i had to weld on 2 fittings to the hard lines, one shown in the photo. Then i bought some rubber pipe and crimps and a crimp tool to make my own hoses from a shop up north that specialises in hot rod AC. i pressure tested my welds with house mains water pressure (~450kpa). Once i get my hoses made i will get my vaccum pump onto it to test before taking it to the shop for gas.
So hopefully i am on the home stretch of AC! might get the bracket put back in on the long weekend and start on the pipes.
in unrelated news i attended a lake side "euro day" a few weeks back. really good fun, never driven on lakeside before. what a cool race track. heres a photo of my brother and i with big grins on with a Ferrari Dino in hot pursuit! had a blast. e30 performed floorlessly. Didnt explode so my DIY road tune must be ok.