Now that the AC is fixed, one issue I did notice right away is that the rear heater / AC unit doesn't blow as cold as it should. Turns out that the vacuum valve that controls the flow of hot coolant to that rear unit is faulty. Hot coolant was always flowing to the rear. I had previously replaced the vacuum line to this valve in the hopes that would fix it. It did not. In order to avoid any further issues, I just installed a manual ball valve, the sort you would use on your home hot water heater. Now I know for sure when coolant is allowed to go to the rear heater / AC unit. Its a small price to pay to have to turn that valve a couple times a year as required by the weather.

Next on to the front cup holders. The original cup holders were terrible. They were nicely constructed and out of quality oak. The problem was in the design, the holes for the cups were simply too large and the cup holder was not deep enough. The result was that you had to hold your drive through every corner. The finish on the wood was also shot. I figured I could do better.

I drew up a design for cup holders that were deeper with a narrower hole for the cupe. There is still storage underneath the cup holder like the original. I improved on the original design in two important points, the new cup holder assembly is not as wide as the original, making it easier for the passenger to get past it to the rear of the vehicle. The second improvement is that the front of the cup holder assembly folds up to provide a 11" x 8" table. It is supported on 3 points and should hold a bag of food or a laptop without any issues.

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Smll Med Lrg old cup holder, did its duty for years but never held drinks securely	Smll Med Lrg old cup holder removed. fabrice is more than a little faded	Smll Med Lrg new cup holder assembled, not stained or polyurethaned yet.	Smll Med Lrg
Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg
Smll Med Lrg test fit	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg new cup holder mounts securely using three screws, 2 top, 1 bottom
Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg hose barb adapters to fit on the transmission oil cooler	Smll Med Lrg AN fittings installed
Smll Med Lrg new 3/4" ball valve to control flow of hot coolant to rear heater / AC unit	Smll Med Lrg old vaccum valve is looking nasty and only works intermittently	Smll Med Lrg new valve installed	Smll Med Lrg
Smll Med Lrg valve closed to maximize efficency of rear AC	Smll Med Lrg old valve	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg yeah, it took a lot of adapters to get tranny fluid into that radiator
Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg new cup holder sanded, stained, polyurethaned, and installed in van	Smll Med Lrg
Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg green netting from an old laundry bag, now stapled to cup holder	Smll Med Lrg table leg is magnetic, mounts to magnet on the bottom of the fold up table	Smll Med Lrg magnet keeps everything held securely even over bumps
Smll Med Lrg 16 lb magnet embedded in underside of table and another on the top of the table leg