my stupid epic road trip idea..

benzbaron wrote: All I know is that I drove to bakersfield in 100+ temps and it was the only time I ever wished I had AC. My truck has no floor insulation so I got the heat from the gearbox and windows and I was pretty sure I was getting baked alaskan. If you are driving an unprepared car through that weather I wish you much luck! Seriously I'd rather beat the crap out of a rental than torture myself like that again. I ended up driving to Riverside(birdoo actually) the most beautiful city in the whole country, nothing but mexicans and cranksters.

I drove up I-15 from Oceanside all the way up into Utah in July. In a convertible with a black leather interior with no working a/c.

I lasted about 15 minutes with the top down, then realized i already had the worst burn of my life. Top up wasn't much better, i had to wrap my arms in spare shirts to prevent them from melting.

It was not fun.

Very kind on the gift of vinyl.
Send enough to cover a large portion of the rear window as well. The window is more of a horizontal surface than it is vertical.

aussiesmg wrote: Damn you guys are Bob Costas, AC in a Pony car, hell no, I would just wind down the windows, dress for warm weather and drink cool drinks, but I'm from Australia where a hot day is 115+ Harden the berkeley up.

Come to Minnesota in January, and we'll drive around with the heater turned off.

Personally, I prefer that...you can always put a warmer coat on in the winter, but you can only take off so much in the summer without getting arrested. It's all relative to what you're used to.

i think the best solution has already been said here and skimmed over. by-pass the heater core, and plumb your cooler ice water through it and use the system in the car already. it does still have dash vents with the a/c delete right?

if you rig up the cool seats, the cold seat + humid air will = soggy bottom. at that point you might as well go with clarksons "car shower" ironically used to keep cool in a camaro with no a/c

this is starting to get educational..

regarding bypassing the heater core- i won't do that, simply because it's nice to have warm air to keep the windshield clear on a humid evening. i don't know if that's an issue in June in Eastern Texas, but it can be an issue up here in MN pretty much all summer long. it blows air at outside temps on either my feet, thru the center vents, or on the windshield with the lever all the way over to "cold", but it doesn't blow a lot of air.. might rig up a relay on the "hi" position like the AC cars had to spin the fan faster and blow more air....

but i did have an idea to modify the cool seat idea a bit by using the same cooler and pump, but pumping the cold water thru an enclosed heater core with a fan to push cool air to flexible ducts that can be aimed wherever they are needed..

and i've also got this crazy idea to just go ahead and get a 4.8 or 5.3 LS engine and use that instead of the 305.. the total costs come out about the same once the carbed intake, ignition controller, and flexplate adapter to hook up the 700r4 trans is added in, but i don't know about hood clearance with the LS intake and i don't know if i'd get my 30+ mpg mileage goals... but one of those would have a lot of potential to grow once i got past my "mpg only" theme..

one small snag is that no one makes a dual plane carbed intake with a spreadbore flange for a quadrajet, so i'd have to either run an adapter and add 1" total height to what looks like an already tall intake or go some welding/machining to make the qjet work.. i do work at a well equipped machine shop so that's not much of an issue, i guess, but it adds time to the project..

i think someone on here had a 5.3 swapped into an S10 with a carbed intake- i'd be curious to see how the hood clearance was with that setup..

In reply to novaderrik:

Only time you'd need the defroster would be if it rained, and the the drying effect of cooling the air (condensation) would help more than heat. Then again, what will happen to the condensation in the heater box? Soak the floor? I guess similar result as the cool seat. Cool seat is great on paper, less good when you want to be able to walk into a restaurant and not get weird looks.

Strizzo wrote: In reply to novaderrik: Only time you'd need the defroster would be if it rained, and the the drying effect of cooling the air (condensation) would help more than heat. Then again, what will happen to the condensation in the heater box? Soak the floor? I guess similar result as the cool seat. Cool seat is great on paper, less good when you want to be able to walk into a restaurant and not get weird looks.

i would mount the heater core/fan on top of the cooler full of ice, with drain holes the let the condensation run into the cooler.. it would have to be emptied out every time ice is added, anyways..

I think you should do a fly and drive. Fly down, buy Miata (with AC) and drive it home when done. Worst you could do is have a rust free miata to sell.

When I was in Texas the only time convertable tops went down was when the sun did.

Get the car put together and sorted out. Next step after that is to decide if the end result is what you want to drive for the trip !