Air conditioning compressor - DIY recondition?

It'd cost you alot more than the car is worth and you'll need alot of stuff off the aircon model.

IMO to add a/c to a car from scratch, rebuilding a compressor would be the least of the problems, especially if you're thinking of using parts from a completely different vehicle. A friend of mine fitted an a/c aftermarket kit some years ago to his Golf. The underbonnet part was comparitively easy, as the kit included all the pulleys and brackets needed. It was taking the dash out to fit the a/c radiator?, controls, wiring, and switchgear that was the nightmare. Took him best part of a week, working up to 4 hours a day. Mike.

There's not that much you need off the aircon model. Smaller glovebox, heater switch, and a few other plastics. The factory aircon clobber is pretty cheap.

It's factory clobber. Switchgear etc. is all factory. I reckon dash in and out will be the hardest job, but it'll give me a chance to do some rattle curing, and p'raps swap it for a slightly better dash from my 16V at the same time.

Golf dash is easy to remove and replace, I had the dash out of my MkI more times than I care to remember.

It wasn't so much the actual dash removal that took the time, as the mods needed to fit all the a/c parts and operating mechanism behind it. IIRC the electronics control box finished up under the passengers seat, because there was nowhere to fit it under the dash. He had to make up a harness to run all the wires that far, as the kit assumed it would fit behind the dash. Mike.