Does anyone have a template for cutting the firewall in a 71 Elke non ac car to convert to ac? Thanks, Scott

Clue here for those paying attentioon. The blower motors are mounted in the exact same position in A/C and Non A/C cars. What does that tell ya????? It tells ya that the blower motor locating point can be a "reference point" for locating all the A/C parts needed to pull off the conversion.

Go cut the firewall out of a factory A/C equipped car at the bone yard. Cut everyhting including the area where the blower motor attaches all the way to over behind the distrib. Cut along the top of the firewall at the highest point near the cowl and along where the angled part of the floor comes up to meet the verticle firewall.

Go home and put the plastic evaporator cover that sits under the hood onto the firewall you removed from the donor car. Attach the evap. cover to the donor car firewall at the blower motor mount point with a couple of small sheet metal screws or bolts. Trim the donor firewall to match the shape of the evaporator cover plus about a 1/4 inch all the way around.

Now attach the trimmed donor car firewall to the firewall of the car you are converting at the point where the blower motor bolts to the firewall. See the hole that needs to be cut??? Also notice that the donor car firewall covers the non A/C hole in your existing firewall. Neat huh???? Cut out the A/C hole.

You don't even have to weld anything in. The holes for the studs that that come thru the firewall on your "to be converted car" will line up to the holes on the donor car firewall with a few exceptions. You have to drill one or two holes if my memory serves. Now you can slide the "in dash" unit up under the dash and factory studs on the unit will line right up with your donor car firewall. The studs that go thru the firewall have nuts on the other end that hold the evaporator cover to the outside of the firewall.

When you are ready for final assembly just use the donor car firewall as the center of a sandwich between the underhood A/C evap cover and the firewall of your car. Depending on how neatly you trimmed the donor car firewall to match the contours of the plastic evaporator box you will have a nice neet installation.

You are done. No welding required no muss no fuss. Almost mindless! All because The General used the same mounting point for the blower motor. Wow Huh??? Now get to it!!!

Time and time again I read how hard this conversion is because of the firewall differences and all the fabrication required. Does this seem like a lot of work......nah not really. Once you have the donor firewall in your hand this can be pulled of with a tin snip and a grinding wheel in an hour or so. When I completed my car everything was a bolt in once the center of the sandwich was neatly cut and trimmed. Unless I TOLD somebody it was a conversion no one ever noticed.



[This message has been edited by oman (edited 01-17-2003).]