In the recent thread about dashboard gauges, Erling posted a picture
of his car's dashboard. According to his description, instead
of the big temperature lever and three-button panel to the
left of the blower switch, his 240 has four levers:
(1) temperature control
(2) temperature control for center dash vents
(3) air to floor
(4) defroster
.
Having had a SAAB 900 and a BMW 528e a while ago, I miss the
feature in those cars where you could get hot air to your feet and
to the defroster while getting cold air at face level. Did any
North American cars have this (better) heating system? Can it
be easily retrofitted to a car with the three buttons? Lack of
A/C is not an issue for me, since my A/C system is broken anyway.
.
Alternatively, I might just get the driver's foot-level fresh air
grate from an older 240 and install it in mine.
.
-b.

It's a control panel for an entirely different system. Fitted only to low-line cars, and never in North America.

To fit one, you'd need:

The panel
The heater box
The blower motor
The blower fan
The heater core
The ductwork

...and probably some more bits. Could be sourced from overseas, I suppose. And then plan a day or 2 to make the swap, and plan on sending again if your blower motor fails.

Evan knows what of he speaks. The parts fiche is as divided by these options as it is by the diesel/v6/l4 differences.
--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

That's a shame that it was never even fitted in Canada, because
it seems like a much nicer system if you're not worried about
having A/C. I wonder how difficult it would be to simply route
the ductwork to the center vents to the cold side of the heater
core. Or install a set of strictly-fresh-air vents in the radio/
extra gauge panel position above the current vents. A project for
when I'll need to change the blower motor, and may that day not
come hastily. :)
.
-b.

Yeah I had a Saab 900 and thats one of the things I miss is those cold air vents. I think I have actually seen the setup you are talking about on a 79 (in Canada) but that car was crushed awhile back. I don't think there would be any easy way to route cold air through the central ducts,as they are right on top of the heater/blower housing. The floor vents are a nice substitute, but if you have a later 240 with AC, Volvo did not even cut the holes in the door pillar for them.
With a lot of work you might be able to rig up the side vents with cold fresh air.

I miss a feature on an old Mitsubishi that allowed the driver to direct cool air toward the face while keeping the feet toasty.

Also, I seem to recall the cutout into the cowl to rocker vent space was still there on both sides of some later model whose kickpanels no longer had the vent shutters. Of course, the one on the right had an ECU mounted over it and the left one a piece of sheetmetal. Next time I'm in there I'll grab a photo, but I've often wondered if there was room to direct that air through a dryer hose or something to one of the dash vents. Usually while driving with a passenger who wants it warmer than I do.

(Sorry I left the "i" out of your name in another post)
--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

My car has the holes in the door pillars with metal plates bolted
over them. The nicer thing about the alternate HVAC system
is that, unlike the floor cold air vents in some 240s, the dash
vents (which can be set to output cold air) seem to be on the pressure
side of the heater blower, so they can be set to output cool air
even while the car is stopped. Oh, well...

Speaking of base model cars, my parents had a base model '74 142 w/o
A/C and it had the three-button heater controls, not the levers.
So, I guess that even cars without A/C in N. America got the
silly buttons. Maybe they thought that Americans weren't smart
enough to comprehend more than one lever ;-) Sort of like later
BMW 528e's, which had their dash top cold air vents sealed shut - but
only in the U.S. version, and all of the hardware was there. All
you needed to add the vent was a knob and a grate.

-b.