83' MKI AC

[Mohatanous]

Hello all,

I am looking to pick some people's brains a bit. I have an 83 Rabbit diesel that I recently just got a new head on and have been running. It runs great and has been a blast to drive. I'm planning on making it my daily driver for the foreseeable future, but I'm planning ahead to the summer even though it's currently 10 degrees outside. My case is not an AC car, and I don't really want to put an AC compressor drawing power from the engine in an effort to save the power I have. Has anybody ever used a 12V AC compressor before? I know that they exist but I'm unfamiliar with how actually good they are. I was thinking I could perhaps get an evaporator core from a factory AC car and put it in my car to avoid having an under dash unit in an already small car, or would it be easier to swap out the whole heater box with a factory AC box? I would like to avoid having to pull the whole dash apart, but I'll do what I must. Just curious if anybody has done anything with one in any of these cars, thanks in advance!

Also, my fuel gauge consistently reads 3/4 of a tank and doesn't move. The arm on the sending unit in the tank is moving freely, maybe it's just crapped out? Completely unrelated, but figured I'd throw in a small issue that can likely be easily resolved. Thank you all!

[ORCoaster]

I would look into those electric compressors if I were doing this.  I have a hybrid Ford pickup now and it has one and it does great.  Meant to save the power stolen from the engine but it is also for it to run when the internal combustion engine is not. 

On the fuel gauge, I would measure the resistance of the gauge to see if it changes when you move that arm.  If not it may just need to be cleaned up, or a worse thing would be a replacement.  It shouldn't be that costly to replace it. 

[fatmobile]

 The stock AC airbox setup has a bigger cutout in the raintray.
 So it has to be cut out from the raintray.
 It also has a recirculate hole cut into the passenger side of the raintray.