Restomod Stag

[Rumbo]

After 5 years of rolling repairs/rust removal she finally has a new coat of paint.

Will try to add the chrome windscreen trim as well as adding a Usb charger and hazard warning switch, that should finish off the changes as it will be my daily drive very soon.

Happy with the painted bumpers which I tucked in closer to the body. The rear is a single welded piece. Hard to believe she is 51 years old, my grandson was impressed when I picked him up from school today!

Not everyone's taste however the changes made will make her more enjoyable ie: Central locking, AC, Phone & Cup holders, Leather heated seats, Bottle holder, Central arm rest.

Sidesml.jpg
frontsml.jpg
Interiorsml2.jpg
Rearsml.jpg

[len]

very nice , and a great daily driver.

[wilf]

Looks very smart, enjoy.

[FrenchStag]

Looks great (and comfy). Still got the V8 burble I hope

[Mick1047]

Nice car Rumbo,

How you did the AC & parts used would be a good thread to read on here(unless its already been done?) I`m new on here so fitting AC maybe old news?

Enjoy!

[Rumbo]

Thanks for the kind words guys. Yes it has a nice RV8 burble.

I installed an aftermarket AC system, placed the condensor in front of the radiator and moved the Auto box cooler to a new air vent on the RH side of the valance, the cut out on the bumper feeds the air to it and warm air exits the vents on the side of the car near the indicator repeaters. I modified the TR6 front spoiler ends to help more air flow through the air vents and radiator.

Front2sml.jpg

The original heater box was retained and the evaporator fitted in the glovebox space. The air heater box was modified to accept the AC air flow so that cold air exits the two side air vents and the central air vent. Hot air from the heater only exits the lower footwell area and the windscreen demist vents ........works well and saved trying to source a AC Heater box,

ac trunking (1024x768).jpg

I made a bracket for the compressor to keep it low and made my own engine bonnet bulge to give clearance for the alternator. The bonnet bulge also enabled the spacers (often used for bonnet clearance) to be removed from the front suspension thereby keeping the original stag front suspension geometry.

Engine bay sml.jpg

AC is rather a necessity here in West Aust.

[Edders20]

what wing mirrors are those? - I have modded Mazda Mx5 ones to fit mine - never likes the original style ones. The black bumpers look good too - I may experiment with 1/4 bumpers on the front see how that looks

[MikeParker]

I am at the other end of the spectrum of keeping the car original, but I have to say that is a really nice job. It looks very smart and you have a high spec car there.

I too am fitting air con as I use the car in the summer in the south of France. For the second year in a row I have had to take my daily car because of temperatures of 38C this year and 40C last year. The car can stand it but I can't. My problem with fitting aircon is locating the evaporator, so I like your solution for that. Was it a big job to re-route the air to the three vents? How much do you have to dissemble?

I have bought the smallest aftermarket evaporator/blower for rally car use with a view to putting in place of the shelf in the passenger footwell, but in the end decided that it just spoilt the look of the cabin too much and was not great for the passenger. My current plan is to make a low profile evaporator/blower to go under the passenger seat. Not great for aircon, but minimal change to the car and it will keep the passenger happy (always the most important thing).

[STypeR]

I am at the other end of the spectrum of keeping the car original, but I have to say that is a really nice job. It looks very smart and you have a high spec car there.

I too am fitting air con as I use the car in the summer in the south of France. For the second year in a row I have had to take my daily car because of temperatures of 38C this year and 40C last year. The car can stand it but I can't. My problem with fitting aircon is locating the evaporator, so I like your solution for that. Was it a big job to re-route the air to the three vents? How much do you have to dissemble?

I have bought the smallest aftermarket evaporator/blower for rally car use with a view to putting in place of the shelf in the passenger footwell, but in the end decided that it just spoilt the look of the cabin too much and was not great for the passenger. My current plan is to make a low profile evaporator/blower to go under the passenger seat. Not great for aircon, but minimal change to the car and it will keep the passenger happy (always the most important thing).

That's hot enough, but it is the south of France. Similar temperatures here in Australia and beyond in some states, which makes it difficult to enjoy driving.
There are effective integrated solutions that will fit behind the dash. Reach out if you need any advice.

Leyland Australia decided to only bring non AC cars here and let the dealers worry about the consequences.
The last and most effective of the 1970's dealer solutions here in Australia was to chop the top off the original heater (but keep the base) and fit an AC fan behind a large evaporator, which is still a valid solution if you're reasonably well set up.
I've spent a bit of time further integrating the wiring as well for this unit so that it operates from the cars factory two speed fan switch, with only the thermostat knob (discretely) visible.
Mounted a parallel flow condenser as per Mark I spec (away from the front of the radiator), insulated the transmission tunnel the ditched the huge York compressor amongst many other upgrades.
All wasn't so bad as the car was designed to have integrated AC from the start.

[Rumbo]

Sorry for late reply, had to deal with a broken wrist from our hockey finals.....and we lost to rub more pain in! Regarding the power mirrors I bought some second hand for $100 for the pair. They are from an early model Honda Jazz. I needed to shave the bases to make it contour the door shape and made up my own thick rubber gasket.

I chose these as they needed to be smaller and slim line compared to modern bulky type mirrors. I now do not need to worry about someone giving them a bump in a car parks and finding out when on the road they are not in their correct position. Other people have used mirrors from a Honda S2000 convertible, could not get second hand so ended up with the Jazz ones.

Regarding the aftermarket AC unit I made up some venting so that two of the Evap outlets went to the standard heater box central air vent and ran pipes from the other two outlets to the outer eye ball vents on the dash.

The pipe feeding the RH vent was run along the space where the dash speaker would normally sit. This was not a issue as I had removed my parcel shelf giving space to fit a speaker box, I had already added another speaker mounted under the dash on the RH side.


acevaptrunking (1024x768).jpg

[STypeR]

That's very resourceful, Rumbo!
I love how you've suspended it from the dash frame support!
That unit has a good size evaporator.

[MikeParker]

Regarding the aftermarket AC unit I made up some venting so that two of the Evap outlets went to the standard heater box central air vent and ran pipes from the other two outlets to the outer eye ball vents on the dash.

The pipe feeding the RH vent was run along the space where the dash speaker would normally sit. This was not a issue as I had removed my parcel shelf giving space to fit a speaker box, I had already added another speaker mounted under the dash on the RH side.

Yes thanks Rumbo for the photo. I now understand how the evaporator output is plumbed through. Cleverly done.

Is the evap. input taken from one of the fresh air outputs from the standard heater box? In that case I guess the aircon is controlled by the normal fresh air controls?

Thanks for your help on this.

Mike

[STypeR]

Mike, almost impossible to control any aftermarket AC unit available by the "normal fresh air controls". Only the factory unit can do that.
The local dealers here did do a good job (in their final attempt) in trying to integrate AC for those here in the Australian heat sensible enough to order a car with cooling from Leyland Australia.

But the dealers here spent no time integrating the fan control; per factory AC fan control that is, where on the factory unit the fan automatically turns on to low speed when the factory's thermostat (AC 'On' horizontal slide control) is moved from its 'Off' central position towards the left ('Cold' setting, AC on).
The new fan was wired to the cars factory fan switch which you turned on manually (for airflow) and then turned a the separately installed thermostat knob to activate the compressor.
I've run a couple of relays so that my Australian dealer fitted integrated unit's fan does come on to 'Low' speed automatically when the AC is activated; per factory.

As I've mentioned before, if you're prepared to invest the effort you can imitate the Australian dealer fitted unit. Some photos below:







The Smiths heater unit was retained but only the bottom half;
keeping the factory heater core etc. The two boxes (in
galvanised sheet metal) are shown below with detail of the
fresh air flap and fan installed (evaporator was out for pressure
checking). This was then just riveted to the factory's retained
bottom half.
StagAirconBox 036.jpg




An example of one of these original Dealer fitted hybrid units below. Some time would have been spent on designing this but in the 70's there were
several AC specialists doing this type of work here for many other European models.
They worked very well but we have since slightly modified these units for a better fit in the vehicles.
image2.jpg





The same unit as above, below undergoing a restoration from one of our Queensland members. Like any AC (or even standard heater unit), the effect
of not having some type of fitration in front of the fresh air vent...
image4.jpg


StagAirconBox 037.jpg

[Rumbo]

Mike there are universal AC kits with either the concealed type evaporators or ones that hang under the dash.

With my setup when both the vent control levers are both in the off position cabin air is blown through the evap by the fan on the back of the evap unit and then out via the dash board air vents. The heater unit still operates as per standard and uses its normal fan. I changed the heater fan switch and interior light switch to suit the rest of the interior.

I even run the AC system with the roof off to provide cool air at times which is nice to have. Anything that makes driving the Stag more often is a good thing rather than the weather dictating it.

The switches for my universal AC kit were fitted to a plate that replaced the ash tray that was serving no purpose.

AC Console sml.jpg

[MikeParker]

That makes it easier to install. I was worried that I had to intercept the flow between the bonnet grill and the original heater box. So the air con always work in re-circulate mode, which makes sense when the outside temp. is very high.

Thanks again for taking the time to explain. I'm sure more in the UK will want aircon as the temperatures rise. Although there was no sign of Global Warming in the UK this summer!