r32 air con delete

[Navara96]

Hi Guys,

I haven't forgot about the indicators integrated with the GT badge! i have just had a heap of work and other more pressing projects on the go lately..... one of them being this.

As many have before I have deleted the air con on my 32... but unlike most I haven't stopped at engine bay, my plan was to delete the box under the dash as well but keep the blower motor and heater functioning....and maintain a working digital climate control (well minus the cooling bit.)

The only way i could find to do this originally was  to buy an N1 'AC box' and the manual climate control unit  (N1's came out with no AC) which believe it or not is expensive, difficult to get a hold of and means you need to get rid of the sweet climate control set up. 

so instead i wasted a heap of time and came up with these;

 

 

Now as you can see it's missing the ducting part but i wanted to ensure i could sort the difficult part first before dealing with that, so after getting $$$$ quotes to 3D print parts i wasn't sure would even work I bit the bullet and bought this..

and after converting computer speak to printer speak and 16 hours of printing later, this;

turned into this;

thanks for looking, I will have more shortly as i'm looking to wrap these up within the next few weeks

[Navara96]

and a quick one of the blower motor side (this is the first test piece)

[niZmO_Man]

Awesome work. Damn wish I had cash for a 3D printer, I'd be making so much crap.

[Navara96]

Haha it's like that... printing stuff for no other reason than you can! Printers are much more affordable than many think, mine was less than $500. Is it professional quality? No but it's certainly not terrible and a lot of what I use it for prototyping parts to be done by CNC which is expensive to redo!Considering I was getting quotes for 80-200 for each of these pieces and 2-4 week wait time it was worth it for me. If you are looking to get some stuff made mate pm me and I'll do my best to help out

[Jordy32]

That's awesome!

[niZmO_Man]

I'd love to make custom brackets for headlight retrofits. Would also use my PC for something other than gaming haha.

[Navara96]

small update, did a bit more work on this last night. Sorted the vents to run between the 2 halves, they have a 70 mm ID and without the AC condenser/radiator in the way i dare say it won't restrict flow too dramatically. The heater side was a bit of a pain I had to make to sure there was enough clearance to get the electrical plug on and off but also wanted to keep the flow as direct as i can.... anyways pictures;

the rendering

 

new part attached (on the final part i will probably plastic weld it but for now glue works)

 

weather stripping to hopefully seal the edges

and finally test fitted, happy to say it clears!

[Navara96]

Almost there... over the last few days i have had some issues with the printer... it has been running non stop for about 3 months now so isn't really a surprise but annoying none the less! the worst part was the issue generally showed up 6-8 hours into a print making it a huge waste of material and time when it happen.

I have however pulled it all apart and made a couple mods and happy to say it's printing better than ever now.

reprinted blower motor side;

 

and installed

the whole assembly currently;

 

last piece of the puzzle is the blower side vent which is printing as i write this... and potentially a clip to hold the blower side tight to the top of the blower motor which has no  factory mounting points and over 25 years of heat cycling and the weight of the AC box on it has warped a bit in my car

[Navara96]

Some terrible plastic welding later and that's majority of the assembly complete!

I have to wait till the ac ducting shows up to join the 2 halves but other than a few minor tweaks that should be it.

Both halves fit pretty well so I'm quietly confident with how low the air flow is through the system there won't be any leaks but assuming the ducting shows up this week hopefully next weekend I will be able to test fit it all on a friends gtr and give it a proper test... I already have 3 sets of these i need to make for friends so i may send to a professional to print assuming the prices aren't too bad.

 

then the next step.... the real reason i deleted this box... you will have to wait and see if you are interested  

[Navara96]

all ready for a test run! AC ducting showed up today, i'm glad I went to the effort of directing the vents towards each other because it turns out the ducting is rather rigid and really would have struggled to bend it nicely into place other wise. hopefully this weekend i will have some good news.

[Navara96]

So over the weekend I fitted this to a mates GTR for the test run, from this..

to this in about 30 minutes;

as you can see it frees up a substantial amount of room and saves a couple kg's in the process. 

Best of all no air leaks! well nothing significant, while poking around under the dash it turns out almost every join in a 25 years vent system leak. I forgot to bring the clip i made to hold the blower side firmly to the blower motor which is where there seemed to be a small leak but was fixed by pressing on the area so have no doubt that the clip will fix that. some thicker weatherstripping wouldn't go astray but trying to find the OEM equivalent stuff has been a pain. Overall though happy with how it's worked out and performs! 

Plan from here.... I have some new plastic on the way which has a higher transitional temperature ( when the plastic starts getting tacky) the current plastic is 55*c while this new stuff is 90*c... 55 really shouldn't be an issue but potentially a hot day in the sun might test that more than i would like. I have made a few tweaks just for sensor mounts on the inside so they don't just hang around in there and potentially rattle around with the blower on.

When that arrives I can start making the few copies i need to do for others, then finish up the second half of the project... but that is much more specific to my car anyways.

thanks for looking! If anyone is interested feel free to PM me, I may send to a professional if there is enough interest otherwise for the odd unit a can use my machine ( just takes 33 hrs to print the assembly)

 

[gts25]

awesome, love this kind of stuff. shame you have to stuff all that hard work up behind the dash where no one can see. imagine all the plastic clips you could remake in the engine bay!

 

[Sub Boy32]

Would you sell them made? If so, how much?

[Navara96]

Would you sell them made? If so, how much?

Hi mate,
I've only just received the new plastic so been doing the test runs with that right now! Please send me a pm if you are interested and we can work something out.
Thanks,
Nic

[GT-R David]

This is so awesome.
Nice to see someome did this.
Really good idea.

Would also like to know for how much you could sell a set when the final product is finished

[Navara96]

Hi Guys,

little while without an update, spent the weekend at racewars so has boosted enthusiasm to get some work done on my car!

I has been having issues getting the new plastic to print well but i think i finally have it, printed it in clear so it was easy to see any issues and pleased to say it all looks pretty good.

added a few little revisions to tidy things up like the temperature probe;

and why i bothered making this whole thing..... because where the ac box used to be is now where my ecu and fuse box live! (sorry about the crappy mismatched pieces most were tests to get this new plastic printing properly).

let me know what you think,

thanks,

Nic

[niZmO_Man]

Dayem son. Wanna make some projector headlight retrofit brackets?

[Navara96]

Dayem son. Wanna make some projector headlight retrofit brackets?

Happy to give it a go! If you have the design ready send me through a pm

[Fastvince]

Hey mate! I just came by this thread by googling as i am deleting my ac myself and didn’t know what stuff i could remove in the cooling box and how to close it of after removing the ac matrix. Would you be willing to share the model as i am located in belgium europe, would be kinda fat to ship a 3d printed part ?. Love your work!

[MoMnDadGTR]

another step in the rb 3d printing world. could even use the design and print from a higher quality if you really wanted.  i have lots of 3d printing done for my car, it can be seen in my build thread and i must say you quality looks great for what you have there mate! nice work