Aftermarket Air conditioning units?

[Dusterbd]

Has anyone had any success at installing one of these in an A body mopar? I would love to have one in the duster I'm finishing but they seem to only make these things for E body cars. Any advice? Cheers!

ant

 

[HotLines]

I have a Vintage air and heat unit in my 64 Signet for the past 20 years and it seems to work well. Why would they not have one for your vehicle yet one for mine?

 

[72golddustermike]

i put a kit from classic air it is for heat only a-bodies works well not hard to install

 

[GaryS]

I did this installation nearly nine years ago and it worked fine. They have lots of new parts today that would make it easier, and you have to be creative if you can't find it in a catalog.

Remember, you drive a Mopar, and in the aftermarket you are an afterthought.

http://www.slantsix.org/articles/vintage-air/Vintage_Air.htm

 

[Challenger]

i installed vintage in my dart and a friends duster they do not have one for these cars but there gen ii and a few options from them it work better than i plan on looks great and works with no problem - send me email ill send you some pictures tonite of the dart no have duster but used same parts

 

[Dusterbd]

Thanks a lot guys. I definitely appreciate this. I'm 25 and this is my first restoration. Still learning and learning I'm an afterthought fast haha. Finding decent headlight bezels for my duster is like searching for gold apparently.

 

[sleeper-oem]

I believe the Duster and the valiant have the same so you could find 2 from another car. the 69 was aluminum and i think the 70 up are plastic dont quote me.

 

[nqkjw]

Classic Auto Air do one for A-bodies
http://www.classicautoair.com/67_69_Mopar A-Body_Air_Conditioning_Mopar_AC.html

Great service - 4 days delivery to Australia.
Really good instructions but I did come across one hiccup.
Mine was originally an AC car and the kit appears to be for non AC cars.
I had to make up a blanking plate to reduce the size of the original fan motor hole to be able to mount the unit.
Anyway,it all ended up good.
Can't tell you how good it is since the car isn't finished yet but their technician assures me their units are the best on the market even though he concedes their name isn't as big as their main competitor.
I assume he was referring to Vintage Air.
I also bought one of their billet slide controls.- Beautiful piece.

 

[YY1]

Thanks for that pic.
I had a hard time believing you had to "find a non- a/c firewall", like the instructions say.

That actually looks like it's going to be easier than factory to service, if necessary.

Can you use the factory a/c controls?

 

[GMachineDartGT]

I've worked with both.

Vintage is a nicer unit by far, and all servo controlled, however you have to get creative with the crappy grommets for the firewall connections and no grommets for the heater hoses. The servo controlled heater control valve has an almost 100% failure rate. Classic has a cable controlled box which has flimsy cable connections at best. Neither system has the ability to mix fresh air.

 

[67Dart273]

I just looked over the destructions for the Classic Air. I must say .... I'm tempted......

http://www.classicautoair.com/manuals/1-1062Manual.pdf

 

[340john]

I've installed the Classic kit in my buddy's barracuda and was more than impressed, with both the ease of installation and the proformance of the a/c system.

 

[sleeper-oem]

My valiant has one and you can use factory if you have them or not you just use the heat temp controls to run it so you dont have to get one if your car didnt have it from factory.

 

[BillGrissom]

$1325 is too rich for me. They do use a nice, integrated under-dash heater/AC box though.

I have a dealer-added under-dash "knee-knocker" box in 2 of my Mopars. My 65 Newport had a York aluminum compressor (common on Fords). It is fairly light and cools well. My 65 Dart had a beastly Tecumseh cast-iron compressor that I won't re-install. A York would fit on the bracket, but I hope to fit an even smaller, more efficient Sanden shorty. There are add-on brackets to convert mine to a Sanden, but that is clumsy, so I will try a bracket I got from an 80's 318.

If you "roll your own", as I may in my Valiant, I see under-dash units for ~$100 new on ebay, and even less for used vintage ones. They are self-contained w/ blower and expansion valve. You just run hoses/tubes to the compressor and drier bottle. I see new condensors for $50 on ebay, in many sizes for rods. I can make crimped hoses myself, but you can also get that done fairly cheap at hydraulic shops. In the engine bay, the dealer used hose clamps, which works. I use a butane coolant, which works well, but others imagine extreme hazards, so research for yourself. I used R-134A before that and it worked OK.

 

[Zuluman]

The "Vintage Air" kit is designed for V8 A-bodies. The mounting brackets for the slant 6 must be purchased separately and costs roughly $ 90 with shipping. I must check my files for the vendor.

Installation of the air-conditioning is the one job that took the most time. Installing the Ford 9" rear axle and the coil-over shock suspension conversion took less time and was more straight-forward, but we got it done in the end.

The "Vintage Air" control panels don't fit well into the space for later Darts and Valiants, so I opted for a control panel from "Dakota Digital", but I was not looking for a period look, so this may not be an option for many builders.

Here are some pics..

 

[RevCat]

I have a Vintage air and heat unit in my 64 Signet for the past 20 years and it seems to work well. Why would they not have one for your vehicle yet one for mine?

Finding this many years later (while looking for information for my 65 valiant). Did you use the universal setup for it? They dont have them for 65's so I wasn't sure if it would work or not. Any info would be helpful. Thanks so much.