getdefaultencoding - how to change this?

[Helmut Jarausch]

Hi,
I've searched the net but didn't find the information I need.
Using Python-2.7.1, I know, I can't modify defaultencoding at run time.
Python even ignores 
export PYTHONIOENCODING=ISO8859-1

locale.getdefaultlocale()[1]
returns 
'ISO8859-1'

still sys.stdout is using the ascii codec.
How can I recompile Python (itself) to change this to iso8859-1 ?
(My favourite editor cannot be told to use unicode.)

Many thanks for a hint,
Helmut.