Joel,

Removing the A/C may not be a good idea for resale reasons, but I did
remove it from the '86 Westy Weekender that I use to own. It never
worked in the 8 years that I had the van to that point. I remove the
whole thing, compressor, evaporator, hoses, dash controls you name it. I
was able to trade the overhead cabinet from my van for an older non-A/C
cabinet from Chris/JordanVW. The non-A/C cabinet was in poor shape so I
removed the veneer and contact paper. I then sanded, added braces and
glued the joints. I had paint mixed to match the side cabinet, primed
and did two or three top coats, matched exactly. I then got new "T"
modeling from GoWesty and new speakers. I filled in the hole in the dash
with a round tachometer mounted in piece of fiber board which I had
painted black. Not very useful for diving but it did help when working
on the engine. Everything ended up looking great.

It seemed to me that the van was happier without it, but that's just my
opinion.

I was able to use it a trade for the 02 EV, technically I got $2K for it
but the sale receipt listed it as $6k, used car dealers and the games
they play.

John
83.5 camper, the project, w/o A/C!
02 Eurovan MV, the driver

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM] On Behalf
Of Martine Boudreault
Sent: Thursday, March 03, 2005 8:19 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Air conditioning keep it or leave it?

I have a 1989 Westy.  Air Conditioning never worked and I have to change
the front radiator. (Read: spend lots of $$)  My question could become
very subjective but here it is;  is it wise to keep the AC if you leave
north of Boston?  I read many email saying that our 2.1l engine are not
design for AC anyway.  Should I keep it in the Westy or take it out and
have a nice storage cabinet?  Has anyone remove the AC heat exchanger to
make a storage cabinet, is this a good idea? Thanks Joel