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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