ss85tadude

I am going to get an AC box out of another car and I am going to try and modify into a delete box. How can I do this with no fiberglassing skills and no welder? I have everything else needed to cut the box up and make a plate to cap off the hole. Does anyone have any instuctions or tips on how to do this?

Thank you

NEEDforSPEED

cant you just buy a cheap 9 doller sheet of alumnum?
and use the box as a temp plate? and cut it out.... im sure you can fab up some clips... or brakets... if you deside to go the sheet way....

NEEDforSPEED

or nuts and bolts..... witch ever...

ss85tadude

I think I am going to do something similar to that. I just wanted some instructions from other people that have done this. Mabye pics

MrDude_1

its ok... it takes no skill for this fiberglass work.

get some resin, some fiberglass mat, a cheap paintbrush, and some cardboard.


take your AC box out, and cut it so just the blower motor part, and the blower exit remain. like a snail shell kind of shape.

use the cardboard and some duct tape and shape the cardboard how you want the box... it may be easier if you bolt the cut piece back on and make it on the car.
when makign the box, have it go over the bolt holes. so that it covers them.


now take your cardboard taped piece and lay it flat on the table.
cut a piece of fiberglass cloth, its just cloth.... and lay it over the cardboard part, with some overlap onto the old plastic part you're reusing.

read the resin bottle.. it will say somthin like x number of dropps for Y amount.... just put some in a cup and mix... try to be close, but dont worry if you arnt exact.

dip the brush in the resin and brushthe resin into the cloth. get it wet..


thats it.

let that dry some, then do it again.. and again, until you have a couple layers.... 3 is fine...

get some long screws that go into the old screw holes... put a rubber sealing washer on each one, then screw it in thru the cover into the firewall... thats it.


that was my first fiberglass project... i did it when i was 15.
i remember that i was very intimidated in doing it... i mean, its FIBERGLASS, isnt that hard stuff?! but really, it was one of the easiest projects ever.

formularpm

Im not sure if this helps, but this is what I did.

ss85tadude

I like that How did you mount it to the box?

MrDude_1

how did you cut it so cleanly?

formularpm

Waterjet. A friend of mine is a machinist, I had him cut it out for me.

Bolted it to the top, and used silicone on the inside to seal the front.

ME Leigh

Bastard

MrDude_1

lmao, i was going to post almost the same thing.....

ss85tadude

So what would be the best way for me to cut it? My dad is thinking JigSaw but I am thinking die grinder with cut off wheel. Mabye a little of both

ss85tadude

One last question:

What all wires and relays do I need to keep?

ss85tadude

Here is a pic of what I have got done so far, I still have alot more to do, but at least I got the big part done

ss85tadude

Another:

Haha, don't mind the dotted line, it's where I screwed up and drew the line wrong

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

anyone got pics of their's like this in a vehicle? right now i don't have any thing there and the ac delete box that i have is seriously damaged from the wreck my other car was in.

ta84-355

Well I needed a lot more space so this ugly thing is what I came up with.

THEGENERAL

well......................atleast it works .....

89 CamaroIROCZ

FormularPM, do you have the cad file for that design? That would make duplicateing it a ton easier. How much would it cost for a machine shop to water jet the same thing for a guy like myself?

Thanks,
Matt

ss85tadude

Check it out:

ss85tadude

Thanks for all your help guys

THEGENERAL

WOW looks really good man good job

THEGENERAL

alright i have a stupid question here ....behind the original ac box was the factory paint there in that good of shape or did you spray on it to match

formularpm

I think my buddy still has the file, if you want I can ask him how much he would want to make duplicate. I cant imagine it would be too much.

GreyFox

one question what exactly is this doing for you interms of power, i really am not understand the concept but am trying to figure it out

THEGENERAL

POWER ??? nothing Looks ALOT....when you remove your ac your stuck with that ugly box on the firewall these guys are just smart enough to figure out ways to get rid of it without having to buy an ac delete box for 60-100+ bucks

GreyFox

ohh ok i didn't know that

THEGENERAL

yeah its mainly for looks and for accesablity of the rear most plugs and headers or manifold bolts.....just makes your whole life easier

GreyFox

cool, so in my car it isn't really needed to take it out because i have a v6 and i can literally stand in the engine bay and work on it

THEGENERAL

pretty much especially if you still have functional air con or you dont plan on putting in a v8 but ive seen guys with v6s still do it for the look when they remove air con

GreyFox

you know it works man, got some r12 in there on wednesday

THEGENERAL

awsome wish it did in atleast one of my cars or trucks...LOL

ss85tadude

Well it was dirty, but after a good wash it shined up pretty nice. LOL I was also able to remove 3 handfull's of leaves that were wedged under the box


OH yeah just in case someone is wondering, I deleted my AC for appearance reasons ONLY I am not expecting any power gains from this mod.

THEGENERAL

i know it was a stupid question but hey ....LOL....probably a good thing you got the leaves out of there anyway ...........are you sure that wasnt a power mod i heard the weight loss will add 5 hp............................LMAO

GreyFox

hey man i hope you guys aren't making fun of my question

ss85tadude

Not in any way, but some people think that they will gain HP by doing this (which is not true) You will lose weight, but it isn' that much so.....


BUT it does look cool!

THEGENERAL

no like ss85tadude said some people actually think that by loosing weight you will gain horse ......didnt mean it twards you at all

GreyFox

ok

camaro of solar

iTrader: (2)

man that looks awesome!!! I will be deleteing my AC soon...as the marro is no longer my daily and it would be nice to have more room to work with back there.....i cannot count how many times that has gotten on my nerves....that and the air tubes for my headers...which will be gone once i can find a cheep set of headers without tubes to replace em....

I dunno...im kinda gymp at negro rigging stuff...so i dunno if i could make something that clean...do the delete boxes really run that much!?!?!?

89 CamaroIROCZ

Yeah, I would definately be intrested in buying just that peice from him. See if you can get a price.

Thanks
Matt

formularpm

He said he'd make it for $30 if your interested. Heres his email if you are interested. mastermatt88@yahoo.ie

83 Crossfire TA

iTrader: (2)

Wow, it’s too bad that I didn’t see this earlier.

Mr Dude, it sounds to me like you’re describing my heater box… and I’ll attach a few pics of what I did (probably should have given me a heads up, I could have posted pics earlier).

This is the original form that I made by cutting up a stock AC box, cutting some cardboard and taping it together. This assembly was attached to a board that was wrapped in some polyethylene and the whole deal got a heavy coat of wax to work as a release agent. It was used as a plug mold:


This is the finished product spray bombed in black primer with some of the holes drilled. It did get a little filler after that to fill in some of the uneven surfaces.



Here is the final deal, painted semi gloss black (to match the rest of the similar stuff in the engine bay, including the blower motor) with most of the mounting holes drilled, the motor/fan mounted, cooling duct and fan speed coils mounted…


Unfortunately, I haven’t taken any pics of it installed, since it doesn’t really look like anything installed, it just looks like it’s supposed to be there. I do have a few that you can see it in in the background, probably the best is:


FWIW, this thing weighs a fraction of what either of the factory boxes weigh and works and fits beautifully

ops32

VERY nice job Mark!
ops32

THEGENERAL

wow that looks factory man good job

nape

iTrader: (1)

That looks killer, Mark!

Any idea what it would cost to have more molded? I'm sure it's cheaper then buying AC delete heater boxes at $100+ a pop.

You could use the stock blower motor too it seems like, I had to make spacers to get the blower motor to not hit when I used an older AC delete box in my '91 GTA.

83 Crossfire TA

iTrader: (2)

I used the stock AC blower motor… I didn’t like the idea of lowering blower capacity AND loosing AC

WRT to making another, I would have to start from the beginning, make a new mold… since I did it as a plug mold which required destroying it to pull it out. If you did it yourself, there’s probably about $5-8 in materials in it (yea, if you have to go out, buy some cloth/mat, resin, duct tape, brushes… then it will cost more, probably about $15, but you’ll have a bunch of everything left over), but labor wise it would be like anything completely custom, expensive, but, if you wanted it more rounded, flatter, with a dent in ____ location… that would be no problem. I wouldn’t do it for $100.

OTOH, if I knew a dozen or so people wanted one so I had a reason to build a permanent mold… then I could get the price down and make it worth doing.

nape

iTrader: (1)

83 Crossfire TA: I sent you a PM a couple days ago. Not sure if you've seen it yet.

83 Crossfire TA

iTrader: (2)

Sorry, between a storm that took out the modem and some other good stuff on one of my PC’s, a bunch of house stuff (closed on a refi tonight), family stuff… I haven’t really responded to anyone for weeks and I’m just starting to get back to emails and stuff now (I have posted on boards since then since it’s easy enough to just sit down and read a few threads).

Let me throw a question out to everyone looking in here… what would something like the heater box that I posted pics of have to be priced under for you to seriously consider buying one? (remember, clearance for just about anything, uses the larger, higher capacity and much more common AC style fan, mounting location for the stock blower speed coils…)

MrDude_1

last time this was tried, people balked at anything over $30.

no offence to anyone here, but thirdgenners are cheap... most(not all) of the guys pulling the AC are only doing it because it "doesnt work" and its "in the way anyway".

83 Crossfire TA

iTrader: (2)

That’s what I figured. That’s also been my experience. At one point I considered jigging up to weld turbo headers for them but found that people seemed to really expect you to give them ˝” flanges, perfect fit, keep all their accessories and stainless for $250-$400. WTF? You can’t even buy stainless headers for anything for that money. You’d literally go broke even if you just loved the work and didn’t expect any compensation for your time (in other words, just paying for materials, equipment, supplies and electricity). When it comes down to it I’ll stick to making a few custom pieces for someone that really wants them until people start looking at this stuff a bit more realistically. To be honest, if I was going to make a “kit” or a production run of something I came to the conclusion when I was looking at the turbo stuff that I could charge almost 2x as much for about 60% of the work and make Honda setups.