GTV AC

[<JHertzman@xxxxxxx>]

Lawrence Gowin asks: "This brings me to my question.  Has anyone fitted an AC
system from an Alfetta or a Spider into a GTV?  I have a 2 litre engine from
an Alfetta, so it seems the retrofit should be pretty straight forward.  Any
thoughts?  

Lawrence,

Sounds like you possibly might not know that AC was an option on the GTV, at
least in later years. I have two, one a Euro '73 and the other a USA-spec '74.
Neither running, someday one should be. The space for the condenser in front
of the radiator is tight, but it manages. Evaporator is a bit bulky and
underdash space is a bit tight, a Spider unit would fit the firewall and
footwells but whether there would be messy conflicts with the dash etc I don't
know. Both cars have the crude and ugly off-the-head mount for the compressor
as on most Alfettas, and the Eurocar has had the head heliarced back together
where they break. Some late Alfettas had a rotary compressor mounted lower, a
tight arrangement with mounting bolts running into special long nuts on the
exhaust-manifold studs. Jim Steck has suggested mounting the compressor where
the alternator usually goes and driving a high-mounted compact alternator off
of it, which should work - anything Steck suggests SHOULD- but I haven't
looked into it further. The Bosch Spiders mount the rotary compressor down
where the Spica pump lives on earlier cars, which should work in the GTV
either with a full Bosch conversion or a carb conversion; that is where I
expect to run my compressor on the Eurocar which is carbed already. The old
as-high-as-possible location of the heavy-bracketed massive piston-type
compressor is the best possible for degrading handling, although it is
partially compensated by the displacement of the battery to the right rear
corner of the trunk, where the two maximize your polar moment of inertia while
placing most of the added weight on the wrong side of your roll-axis. Together
they add appreciable weight in the worst places for the preservation of the
original character of the design.

The PO of the Eurocar tells me that the AC was relatively ineffective, which
should be no great surprise as the often relatively ineffective GTV-6 system
is presumably an improvement on the Alfetta's which is presumably an
improvement on the GTV's. If you can lose your trunk space, i.e. if you don't
need the rear "seat" for two heat-load-enhancing adults and the trunk space
for luggage for the four of you, you could mount a second (or even primary)
evaporator from Vintage Air or one of the other hot-rod/custom-car AC
suppliers on the shelf over the axle, which should not hurt weight
distribution. If the condenser is the limiting factor that might not be much
help. 

Having covered some very hot August miles in the sunny south in the Milano
with the windows down because the AC was fighting a losing battle with the
black-car heat gain, I am definitely going to paint the GTV either Biancospino
(off-white) or a pale silver, probably with slightly reflective film on the
glass, and pale cloth upholstery to boot. If I have to stretch the nose
slightly to fit a larger condenser that should be no harder than the recently-
discussed 'modernizing' of step-nose cars.

An option perhaps worth considering is buying a light-colored Sport Sedan for
a summer trip car. Particularly if you settled for the price-depressing
automatic version (with self-leveling, of course, for the luggage) it might be
a lot cheaper, you would have a comfortable and relatively rare car which is
more enjoyable than some suspect, and you would pick up a couple of bonus
points- electric fan, a very collision-safety oriented design, etc., and there
would be no degrading the GTV.

If I feel that negative about AC in a GTV, you  might ask, why would I  - -?
Well, my other GTV is a '71 - olive green - which will stay the way it was
meant to be.
 
Good luck-

John

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