Factory Air Conditioning Kit Vs. Aftermarket Air Conditioning Kit.....

[xs10shl]

Here's a photo of the interior - on the control bezel, you can just make out the extra setting on the top lever for "cool", and the central lever is used for temperature control, ranging from "Heat" to "cool". The photo I have of the engine does not show the compressor.

Apologies in advance for lack of clarity of the pictures - I bought the car sight unseen, and I did not bother to take extra pictures when I went to deliver it for restoration. I spent no time on the A/C - instead I was fawning over the condition of the series 1 dash and all the other lovely series 1 bits on the car.

[sblake01]

If it is a factory system, it would have likely used an early version of one of the swash plate type Hitachi compressors which would have been rotary rather than upright. Like I said, if the evaporator is mounted behind the center stack rather than in the passenger footwell, you have factory air, possibly the rarest of the 'series 1 bits' you speak of. If that is the case, it would work better than you think as far as cooling the car goes. Finding all of the parts for it could be a challenge.

[xs10shl]

Here's a few pictures of my installation on a 1970 Fairlady Z-L. This installation probably contains some Nissan parts, but may have been added at a later date. For example, the location of vacuum canister is under the passenger footwell in this installation, and not in the engine bay.

I did not include pictures of the compressor, as it is clearly not a factory piece, with a home made mount. Center console has not yet been dismantled, so I will post a few more photos as things come apart.

[xs10shl]

More pics showing the guts of the temperature control system. Looks like there's 2 switches and a vacuum switch. I have no real idea what parts are original, and which are retrofitted. I can't seem to find any other pictures of the factory A/C controls on this site or elsewhere, so I've got nothing to compare it to.

Edited September 17, 2011 by xs10shl

[xs10shl]

Here is the evaporator and misc pictures. Lots of crazy stuff! I'm surprised it all fits under the console.

[sblake01]

That is definitely a non North American market factory system. Like I said earlier, you'll probably have a difficult time sourcing parts for it.

Edited September 24, 2011 by sblake01

[xs10shl]

Just going based on the drawings in the service manual (and assuming that most of the other stuff is original) it looks like I might have everything except the F.I.C.D. and the original compressor/mount. Also I can't be sure that the crank pulley is the right piece. I can probably use some later Datsun parts for the compressor, but the F.I.C.D is probably unfindable. Thankfully that piece is probably not the most critical, and can be compensated for.