At 07:51 PM 4/20/97 -0700, you wrote:
I almost cut the car today. I had been counting on upgrading the MK1
>to the later under-dash vent assemblies, using parts from my old SV Alpine.
>I found only one of the plastic vent boxes,however,and it is in pretty bad
shape.
>I do not even know which side it is for! In addition, to install one, it
looks
>like one must cut the panel below the cowl vents, which is OK, then _bend_
the
>metal to create a flange to rivet to (under the dash? Ouch!), which I do not
>care for. I think the best answer is to fabricate a flange rivetable to the
>plastic box, which in turn would be held to the car with through bolts; a
>much more sanitary installation. I am now interested in a set of
rebuildable
>boxes from a defunct T or A (perhaps someone who’s on the Alpine list could
>cross-post this request for me?). In the interim, I spent TWO HOURS cleaning
>up the old Alpine’s sub-dash brace, the one that’s normally upholstered to
be
>the lower finisher to the dash. The reason I used the Alpine unit is that it
>has the welded-on braces for the pull knobs for the vents; thus I should be
>able to retro-fit the vents as soon as I have the boxes ready.
> Exit questions: (a) what color are the little slit vents in the dash
>cover, right below the windshield (for the defroster)? Mine are brush
painted
>black.
>Larry Wright "I can't get no-- Satis-traction"
Rick at Sunbeam Specialties has kits for the vents to repair all of
your problems. He also has copies of the tech tip I wrote a couple of
years ago on this retrofit installation including photographs of the
details. You have to provide the Series V vents and related operational
hardware, but the kit has new vent doors and all of the hard to find
hardware such as gaskets springs and rollers. The closure doors are of the
molded design and are identical to the stock units except for the
translucent material in place of the black originals. Since they can't be
seen after installation, I didn't think that would be a problem.
Tom Hall
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