67 Barracuda Factory Air - Worth Fixing Up?

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DallasMan2000

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I am at a crossroad with the factory air in my 67 Barracuda. All that is left of the factory air under the hood are the two ports in the firewall. Inside the car, the push button controls remain along with the vents and coil system under the dash. A/C would be nice especially living in Texas although I am afraid we may be chasing something very difficult to maintain.

The interior of the car has been restored to look as new a reasonably possible with the exception of the under dash vents that will cost around $1000 to restore by the time I pay shipping both ways and have it re-chromed.

So here are some questions I am hoping some members here can help with:

1. Do you still have factory air that works in 67-69 Barracudas?
2. Are there replacement parts for under the dash available if I need to rebuild?
3. Has the system proven to be fairly reliable once rebuilt?
4. Can the original coil inside the dash handle refrigerants available today?
5. Is the pushbutton control system fairly straightforward to work on?
6. Any idea of a ballpark cost to get the air working with nothing under the hood and typical repairs inside the car?
7. Are there companies that specialize in restoring these factory systems on a-bodies?

Sorry in advance for all the questions. I owned a 67 Barracuda many years ago as a teenager without air so am not familiar with the system. There is also a linkage arm hanging down in the last pic that I am not familiar with. Moving on without air is my other option if this proves to big of a beast to tame.

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Our 67 is an AC car, and while we have all the underhood ac components, there is no chance I would invest any $$ in it.
The push button switch is amazingly expensive and not repopped. These are plastic and very brittle. They MAY be able to be repaired.
For what u were quoted for rechroming diffusers, I would invest that in an aftermarket ac kit. More reliable, effective and use the current refrigerant.
Sorry I didn't answer many questions, Just posted opinions. The ac diffuser is a very nice looking piece and we left ours intact as it looks awesome.
Good luck.
 
Although not a 67, i decided from the day I got my 65 Dart wagon, I wanted AC in it, preferably factory appearing AC. I acquired everything to install AC - the correct 65 underhood and underdash components as well as a correct AC firewall. Acquired over time, cost was reasonable. Classic Air restored all my hoses and the compressor. Expensive? Yes, but again done over time the cost was manageable. Am on the downhill of rebuilding the wagon so next year I’ll be cruising in ice cold comfort
 
4spdragtop said:
Our 67 is an AC car, and while we have all the underhood ac components, there is no chance I would invest any $$ in it.
The push button switch is amazingly expensive and not repopped. These are plastic and very brittle. They MAY be able to be repaired.
For what u were quoted for rechroming diffusers, I would invest that in an aftermarket ac kit. More reliable, effective and use the current refrigerant.
Sorry I didn't answer many questions, Just posted opinions. The ac diffuser is a very nice looking piece and we left ours intact as it looks awesome.
Good luck.
Click to expand...
Hi Steve,

Is this the switch you are referring to?


3895790 - 1960-74 Chrysler, Dodge, Plymouth; AC & Heater Control Switch ; A, B, E, Body Models; 5 Button Switch
 
Here is a 67 Todd bought from GTSjohn that came with all the AC missing. We found this car to be a total mess when we got it home. So the car was dismantled to remove all the scrap parts put in to sell it. I installed the AC and all parts when reassembled . Also a 150 speedo, Factory Tach. and converted from auto on column to 4 spd .

If I were you I would gather the parts and reinstall the factory AC. I have plenty more parts to do other cars. If I was installing AC in a non AC car I would use Classic Air. No cutting or drilling and can be converted back if wanted with no signs of the conversion.

Those plastic switches fit from many years and model mopars. They usually split from pushing the buttons to hard but can be repaired. I have others coming in for the same work. 67 is a different switch but 68 to mid 90's can be used with a one wire change. This one is out of a 89 dodge omni.

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Thanks everyone for your responses so far. I am carefully reading each one for datapoints on making an informed decision. I will also look for companies in the Dallas/Ft Worth area that could do this for me.

Does the compressor run all the time or do they have a clutch that engages on the compressor when the air is activated?
 
As another data point, I just spoke with Dallas Customs and Classics. They would restore with a combination of a retro kit with all new parts and use the original under dash vent if desired. Approximate cost would be $7000 and they could take on the job in September. In this scenario I would also still have the $1000 restoration cost of the original vents. Thinking that $8000 is more than I want to spend for a total outsource to get cool air. Will likely either take on the job myself or go without.
 
My '72 Demon had factory AC. I rebuilt the system myself. There were no kits available for the slant 6, so I sourced all the parts myself. New Sanden compressor, parallel flow condenser, dryer, hoses and fittings. Inside the car is all factory. I rebuilt the heater and AC boxes with a kit from Detroit Muscle. The original evaporator was good. Did it all for under $1000. I'm not an AC expert, I just spent the winter learning and building. Good luck.
 
Looks like I am going to shelve this issue for a while. Took lots of pictures with measurements and put the vent assembly with hardware in a nice clear storage box. I may resurrect this project over the winter months if I run out of other stuff to repair/restore on the car.
 
I put a factory ac in my 69 barracuda and I like it. I use R134 and it will freeze you out.

1. Do you still have factory air that works in 67-69 Barracudas? Mine works good, but I have a new expansion valve, condenser, dryer and fan.

2. Are there replacement parts for under the dash available if I need to rebuild?
Detroit Muscle makes a rebuild kit. All my vacuum pods still work, heater cores are available, but with some issues.

3. Has the system proven to be fairly reliable once rebuilt?
Mine works great. I have to put gas in it at the beginning of the summer because I have a small leak in evaporator coil.

4. Can the original coil inside the dash handle refrigerants available today?
Yes.

5. Is the pushbutton control system fairly straightforward to work on?
Yes, you can take it apart, clean it and lubricate it. The biggest issue is the vacuum ports break off.

6. Any idea of a ballpark cost to get the air working with nothing under the hood and typical repairs inside the car?
I think about $1-2k if you do the work.
Original pulleys and brackets are really hard to find unless you can salvage it all off a complete car.
The lines & hoses can be found fairly easily. I still use 50 year old hoses an they work fine.
Heater hose valves are not repopulated, but you car get a similar one that functions the same.
If I couldn’t find an oem under hood set up, I would go aftermarket. You can buy modern compressors, pulleys and brackets.

7. Are there companies that specialize in restoring these factory systems on a-bodies?
I don’t have any experience here since I am a cheapskate.
 
Wow, thank you very much for your input. This gives me more confidence about taking the a/c project on.
 
Just a heads-up for you A/C folks. R134A will cease production in 2025.
 
Professor Fate said:
If all you're missing is the underhood components, consider an "Underhood Upgrade" kit offered by Original Air (a division of Classic Auto Air). Includes everything under the hood, designed to hook up to your factory in-cabin system and controls.
MOPAR STAGE 1 | Original Air Group
MOPAR - STAGE 2 & 3 | Original Air Group
Click to expand...
I bought that kit for my '69. It does not include everything. Its missing the hard line on pass inner fender, the small hard line between expansion valve and evaporator core both of which must either be fabbed up OR found used. The bracket for filter drier is missing, no hard line between condenser and filter drier, and no condensor. Its is far far far away 'from including everything under the hood'. Its a 'compressor upgrade kit' not a 'I Am Missing Everything Kit'.

And if you have the 3 groove factory crank pulley the '69 and back kit does not use the AC belt groove. Instead, they supply a complete crap bracket setup that directs you to use one super long belt to go around crank, AC, and PS.

So the Original Air kit assumes you have a complete factory AC under hood setup already and if not you are left to go round up all the missing parts yourself. And you can call them up, get put on hold for an hour, just to be told they don't care, they don't know anything about anything, you get what you get, don't bother us any more.

I have all the details of my AC install in my T56 swap rusted floor thread. It does blow ice cold but thats after I jumped through all the hoops to make it fit and work correctly. And luckily I had all the under hood parts NOT included in the kit.
 
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Here is video first day testing my AC. Heat index was over 100 degrees out and this video shot after 45 minute drive. Since that video I have a few more hours use and seems like compressor getting broken it and blowing so cold it inflicts discomfort I am forced to turn fan speed down redirect vents etc:

 
This guy had a '69 Barracuda that was missing all the under hood parts. He found a lot of them used, fabbed up the missing hard lines, and used a modern condenser. Since he is obviously smarter then me I used same condenser and condenser to filter drier hard line parts he used:

1969 Barracuda Fastback
 
I vote fix your factory air inside and update under the hood if need be. I have a surviver 67 Dart 270, 273 with factory air, all original air running R12. It will freeze your *** out. I've had passengers ask me to turn the AC down. And yes-you can still find R12, just look a little bit,, usually swap meets and sometime garage sales. Ask any elderly relatives, neighbors, I have no ptoblem finding it. You will drive the car a lot more if it has AC!
 
My 7 barracuda was not a factory AC car.

I used a classic air kit that utilized my stock heater controls.

Buchillion brackets to mount compressor on passenger side of the 383. Down low.


I took off the back of the factory diffuser and piped the classic unit to it.

I have under 2K into it.

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Excellent feedback from all. This will likely be a winter project. Meanwhile I will look into getting the vent assembly restored so it will be ready. If anyone familiar with this lives in the Dallas area I would gladly pay for occasional on-site consulting this winter to keep me from messing it up.
 
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