Hey guys, I ve been searching the forum the last couple of days and DAMN! you have a lot of info in here!!!!! What I have been able to locate yet is anyone who has installed aircon in a non aircon B.... It sounds weird I know, but I live in Athens Greece and summer without aircon stuck in trafic sounds like a nightmare to me... any ideas?

Hi,

I think this has been looked into before by doc and was found to be too complicated to attempt. A barchetta with air-con also has a different radiator with two fans, the bulkhead is different, the wiring loom is substantially different and the dashboard would have to be removed too.

If you were to attempt it the cheapest way would be to get hold of a scraped car that had air-con and harvest all the parts. I imagine the whole lot from Fiat would cost a bit. I needed one crappy pipe for part of the system and Fiat charged 130 pounds.

Good luck!

As SB has said this is a big job. I looked into doing this when I first bought the b and aside from the fact it is a very difficult job it is also very hard to get the parts (not to mention expensive!!). If you do decide to undertake this mod I will watch with interest!

Just to add to this not only will the aircon be a major refit but you would also need to possibly convert the system depending on when it was made from R12 (No longer avilable due to eco laws) to R134 as many compressors are not compliant with r12 which is no longer available. Every seal would also need replaced as r134 is a much smaller molicule than r12.

Confused.....

Keep the roof down

paganeli panda said:

Hey guys, I ve been searching the forum the last couple of days and DAMN! you have a lot of info in here!!!!! What I have been able to locate yet is anyone who has installed aircon in a non aircon B.... It sounds weird I know, but I live in Athens Greece and summer without aircon stuck in trafic sounds like a nightmare to me... any ideas?

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Hi Panda, You asked for 'any ideas'..... How about don't drive in Athens' traffic, it will be uncomfortable for you and the poor Barchetta will not like it either. Get a scooter or walk.

Save the B for driving in the countryside with (as LRB says) the roof down:slayer::slayer:

a few very valid points, thank you!!! For osme weird reason today was beautifull here (Corfu) so i did what every self respecting B owner and took the roof down and went for a drive...!!!

Indeed on days like this one gets to appreciate the B regardless of all her quircks and tricks...

Given the expense of trying to recreate a factory fit/decent after market aircon system you could look at the very slight possibility of bying and small compact stand alone air chiller unit and installed a DC to AC converter and find a way of ducting the hot air out of the car.

Yes I know a gross horrible idea but as a homebrew project could be a rather fun thing to try.

Nick /////

There is an American company that makes freestanding aircon units for boats/planes etc..can't remember their name. I did a load of searching on google when trying to get my coupe aircon fixed.

I remember a price of approx $4k for a briefcase sized stand alone unit with compressor etc..ran off 12 or 24 volts.

The other way to do it is to buy a 'chiller' unit which is basically a cold box full of ice with fans to blow air through. Only lasts a few hours before needing a re-fill and you get wet cold air (gallon of water vapour from a gallon of ice) opposed to cold dry air from an aircon unit.

Much cheaper and you could probably build it yourself..

will be some major & costy work but everything is marked inside the engine bay you just gotta buy & instal the parts.. ur better off with a standalone chiller unit...

I think it would be cheaper and easier to sell you b and buy one with aircon from the sounds of it!
xs

paganeli panda said:

Hey guys, I ve been searching the forum the last couple of days and DAMN! you have a lot of info in here!!!!! What I have been able to locate yet is anyone who has installed aircon in a non aircon B.... It sounds weird I know, but I live in Athens Greece and summer without aircon stuck in trafic sounds like a nightmare to me... any ideas?

Click to expand...

Umbrella ?

Another Greek ?

LittleRedB said:

Keep the roof down

Click to expand...

Roof down=
Roof up =sauna

BILL33 said:

Roof down=

Roof up =sauna

Click to expand...

:idea: Only go out in the early morning and late evening when you can have the roof down and not get sunburnt!!