Air Conditioning

Yes, you can install A/C into Your Bug, bus or Ghia thanks to I.C.E.

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It was way back in 1977 when contributing editor John Rettie traveled south to the San Diego urea and visited the home office of International Conditioning Enterprises (I.C.E.) in National City, California, and researched air conditioning units for VW's. Well. needless to say, a lot has happened to the air conditioning industry since that last visit. One main area of  change is the way we look upon freon gas — the life blood of any air conditioning system. Since the '70s, we have become much more concerned with the effects of freon gas released into the atmosphere, and have changed the way air conditioning units are charged, and what type of gas we now use. To date, the industry is in the process of switching from using R-12 freon gas, to Image1.gif (10192 bytes)
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ABOVE, the I.C.E. under-the-dash evaporator fitted on a '96 Mexican-built Beetle. Notice how the vents are mounted the full width of the unit. LEFT, the complete VW Beetle A/C unit from I.C.E., including detailed instruction.
ABOVE, two holes must be drilled out, as shown, to allow for the two high-pressure lines to pass under the car and forward. BELOW, the secondary condenser is mounted on the rear engine firewall with self-tapping sheet metal screws.
Right, by removing the rear deck lid and air box, it makes it much easier to work on the engine and related parts. It is not necessary to the engine for air conditioner installation.

what is often referred to as "environmentally friendly" R-l34a, or FR-12 gases. Due to this switch over, it was necessary to improve the performance of the condensers, as well as changing the pressure fittings. This continuing research has

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