I remember it distinctly, December 7, 2019. I flew down to South Carolina to pick up the 911 SC that I'd name Scarlett as a very early 40th birthday present for myself. I had a rather ambitious build sheet at the time but as with all restomod projects, scope creep happened, mostly due to my desire to upgrade things that we felt were in a questionable or broken state. Add onto that a global pandemic and here we are about 1.5 years later seeing the conclusion to the build, quite ironically, with the car now parked in my new project, the permanent Steguis Motorsports garage along with its garage build (we'll save that build for later).
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Scarlett in the "new garage"
Yes, that's the original factory seat turned "shop chair" |
For the past two weeks, the car's been with the good folks at Speedsport Tuning getting the Classic Retrofit Electric AC installed. I had always planned for this from the start which is why I had the Classic Retrofit (by WOSP performance) high output alternator and starter installed last year. Over the winter, they only had one kit left before they went away for Christmas Holiday so I had to place the order. The kit consists of an Electric AC compressor that tucks in nicely in the smuggler's box in the frunk that's is controlled by a control unit located in the same assembly.
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Classic Retrofit electric AC compressor
and control unit |
Unlike the factory condenser setup which has one sitting under the front bumper and another under the rear decklid, they have you put the AC condenser behind the bumper driver side just in front of the wheel well. This is actually where the factory washer fluid tank sits so I had the body shop delete it when they were working on the car. Let's face it, I wasn't going to use that anyway so it was just taking up space and adding weight.
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| New AC condenser and fan |
On a lowered car such as mine you can see that it's pretty close tolerance to the tires but clears just fine.
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| Tire clearance to condenser |
Then all the fan and AC ducting gets replaced with a new blower unit that thankfully uses all the vents for AC and not just the small center ones. I even got an
Achtungkraft Under Dash Duct that redirects those lower ducts towards the driver and passenger seats rather than just straight down. it's quite effective at ending some cooling to your nether regions.
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| New blower and ducting installed |
Finally, a switch needs to be added to turn the AC on as the factory AC controls no longer work. It's a bit weird to think that this unit is just on or off and can't be adjusted (without reprogramming the control unit) but as anyone with an aircooled Porsche can attest, if it's hot enough to want to turn the AC on, you want it at full blast anyway. These cars have poor insulation and the glass predates any factory UV protection coating so you're driving around in a mobile glasshouse if it's sunny out. There's a really sweet, unused button slot right next to the steering column that's perfect for it. So you simply turn the AC on and then slide the fan control to the desired fan speed on the blower and you're done.
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| Power button for AC |
It was fairly warm today, around 85F and even after baking in the sun for a bit, the AC at full blast was able to get the cabin to a comfortable temperature. I wouldn't call it ice cold but definitely comfortable enough to drive in clothes you'd wear during summer anyway. With the compressor and blower up front, you definitely hear a bit of an electrical whine when it's on but it's really no big deal if the alternative is to not drive it at all simply because it's too hot out and you don't want swamp ass all over your custom seats.
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| Factory AC removed and Achtungkraft cosmetic goodies added |
One of the best things about converting to electric AC is finally ditching that big heavy compressor that sat way rear of the engine and also losing the AC condenser on the decklid blocking some of the much needed engine cooling. I had a custom fan strap made by Achtungkraft along with their CIS intake cover with brass grill to dress up the engine a bit now that you can see it in all its glory. In case you've forgotten here's some photos of the full stock and pre-eletric AC install with dressup to see how far it's come.
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Bone stock with AC, factory heating and CIS
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Switch to SSI exhaust, backdated heating, cruise control
removal, EFI conversion, factory AC and intake cover |
You can see how much less cluttered it is now and as you can probably guess, the car's lost some weight and shifted some of the rear mass forward now that the AC compressor and the rear bumperettes are gone.
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| Weight with 20 gallons of fuel, roll bar, no driver - 2685lbs |
With all this electrical load on the car, I wanted to keep a closer eye on the voltage and the alternator health so I purchased a VDO voltmeter to match the rest of the VDO gauges in the car and had it installed in the center console cubby under the now just decorative AC controls.
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| Voltmeter installed showing a healthy alternator voltage |
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Really loving this interior, makes driving so enjoyable...
and functional! |
Finally, for my own satisfaction, while still in my 40th year just a few weeks shy of my 41st birthday I can finally say the build sheet is all green. There are no items left planned, purchased, but not installed.
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All green build sheet - We're Done!
May 27, 2021 |
This doesn't mean I'll never touch this car again and maybe make minor improvements over time but really the full scope of what I envisioned for this car when I first bought it has now been realized. I really want to thank everyone that's helped me make my vision reality; Speedsport Tuning, K2 Auto Body, GTS Classic, SJF Performance, even forum members on Pelican that helped provide some much needed info when I was in a bind. Thank you!
Maintenance Update:
Mileage: 168,407
- 11 quarts of Driven DT-50 oil
