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I got a ton of pictures a couple weekends ago of the evaporator housing after rebuild. Naturally I keep forgetting to transfer them from my camera... Will try to do that shortly.
Over the last two weekends I've finally been able to start reconstruction. I got the new evaporator housing installed. It fits fine even though it's not the same one the car shipped with. I've also run all new hoses throughout the AC system. I still need to make a few more connections, and try to figure out how I'm going to get the high pressure line from the compressor across the engine bay without risking any interference problems. (The kit wants it run along the bottom of the fan shroud, but does not indicate the use of any extra mounting clamps - not sure how well that will work). I did make the new suction side line from TXV using my original TXV fitting with a brazed-on beadlock fitting and a all-new fitting for the other end. I'm a little nervous that it will hold, but the crimping tool seemed to work quite well. Installing the firewall grommet was a pain, I ended up installing it over the suction hose out of the car before crimping on both ends, then after it was installed I ran some heat shrink over it to be safe.
I swapped out the condenser again with a new 16x24 PF condenser. I'm hesitant to recommend going with this large of a condenser. I think a 16x22 would be the best fit. My car has an aftermarket radiator, and I suspect it may be either slightly thicker or at least the bottom tank is slightly thicker. This was causing a clearance issue with the condenser. Both could be installed, but once you clamped the radiator in place it was trying to flex the condenser. Because the 16x24 condenser is quite a bit wider than stock, it needs to sit behind the driver's side headlight bucket support. I had to remove a small piece of sheetmetal from that support, as well as use a soft mallet to push the support forward by about 1/8". I also had to clearance the sheetmetal supports near the bottom corners of the condenser as well. None of this is visible once the car's together, but I would have preferred not to have to deal with it. I did add a bit of foam tape between the tank of the radiator and the lower mounting hardware of the condenser, just to help keep them from rubbing together.
I also managed to cause a power steering hose leak, my hoses were original to the car and apparently I bumped one enough to make it start leaking. I won't get new hoses until later this week.
Up next: New TXV, torque everything, reinstall the dash and console electronics, new receiver/drier with oil, air cleaner reinstall, vacuum/flush/fill and hope the system works. One or two more solid days work should get it finished.
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