California cars with no air conditioning can be uncomfortable.  While 2×60 air conditioning (2 open windows going 60mph down the road) works somewhat, my challenge this summer was to get operational air conditioning into my 280z.

When I bought the car, there was a box in the back with the original air conditioning compressor and hoses in it.  While I was hopeful that it was just a part that had been replaced along the line, it soon became obvious that, at some time, many of the air conditioning parts had been removed from the car, never to be returned.

Ok, now what?  First to understand what parts were missing and then to try and find them.  While I knew the system would need to be updated to the new refrigerant, R134, and I knew that it would never be as efficient as it originally was or a more modern system might be, but I wanted to make it as original as possible.

Off to source parts:

I was missing the condenser that mounts in front of the radiator and I found one locally from someone parting out a car.

The mounting bracket for the compressor to the engine was missing and a replacement was not to be found, so I decided to design and build my own.   First I laid it out in CAD, then built a Styrofoam model to fit everything up, and lastly took a road trip to use Grandpa’s welding  equipment to fab the piece myself.

 

In the end, I had the perfect custom bracket.

Now to size a pulley and belt to match up with my new bracket.   That was the easy part.

 

The compressor worked, but needed to be fully rebuilt with all new seals and gaskets.  After much trial and tribulation, I finally found a source for the new seals and then spent many frustrating days disassembling the compressor and rebuilding it section by section.

Finding  a new drier/accumulator bottle with compatible connections was also a challenge, but in the end, I found a source and was on the right path again.

Luckily, everything on and under the dash was in place and blowing air, the system just needed the cooling parts in place.

Now for the scary part.  Having put all the parts into place, I took it to a local shop to evacuate the system and recharge the refrigerant.   The moment of truth – would it all work?   Would there be any leaks?   Would all my hard work be successful?

YES!   I got the call at the end of the day from the shop that it was blowing cold air.  Success!