Anyone done Under Dash A/C ?

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With factory a/c the under dash part was only a duct with chromed pot metal vents. The vents changed to all black plastic and the shape of the duct changed a little too. Majority of changes occurred with 73 model so I'll assume these changes did also. We can interchange the vents but not the duct. They don't marry up to the plenum the same.
Oh yeah, the 68 model got lower dash pads so the put a little pad around the bottom of this vent/duct too. With or without doesn't change fitment.
 
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Thanks. The box I got out of the 67 Cuda has controls on it where mine has controls already on the dash. The box I just got says Chrysler on it. Is it a dealership install AC unit?
 
I put in duct work with a door, pneumatically controlled. It gets the air from the passenger side where the mail box vent was. The fan moved to the added duct work. On hot humid days I close it, all other times it's open.
 
Jimscuda said:
Thanks. The box I got out of the 67 Cuda has controls on it where mine has controls already on the dash. The box I just got says Chrysler on it. Is it a dealership install AC unit?
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Yes sir, there is a "look alike" unit dealer installed that had switches between the vents, vaporator, fan, etc... I have one of those here. The factory piece you're looking for has the mounting bolts hidden behind 2 blanks between the vents where the "look alike" has its switches there.
 
Perfect, thanks for the info. I guess I just paid for an education. lol
 
Jimscuda said:
Perfect, thanks for the info. I guess I just paid for an education. lol
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That 'look alike" unit and/or parts for it is sometimes sought after. I could have sold mine a few times over the years.
As for the correct piece... You'll find the chromed pot metal vents are often pitted badly or broken. And that little lower pad piece for 68 only is quite rare. Good hunting
 
nowadays people are all about AC. When I was younger I hated popping the hood and seeing AC. 68 is a one year deal, I can imagine that pad is hard to find.
 
I bought a vintage knee-knocker on ebay (~$60) for my 64 Valiant. I don't know if any are "correct" since installed by dealers, K-mart, Sears, Western Auto, ... There was a Chrysler "Air Temp" brand or such, which might have had an under-dash version (forgot). You can buy new ones for $100 on ebay. Slicker is the Classic Air "behind dash" unit, which replaces your factory heater box and routes tubes thru a plate where the blower motor penetrated the firewall. A factory system won't exactly fit since the firewall was different in AC cars.
 
CUDA69 said:
I put in duct work with a door, pneumatically controlled. It gets the air from the passenger side where the mail box vent was. The fan moved to the added duct work. On hot humid days I close it, all other times it's open.
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Can you show us a picture of your set up?

I adapted the factory underdash vent box to the Classic Auto Air system and have thought about getting the passenger side fresh air vent working again.

The fan motor does stick out toward the right quite a bit though.
 
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Jimscuda said:
nowadays people are all about AC. When I was younger I hated popping the hood and seeing AC. 68 is a one year deal, I can imagine that pad is hard to find.
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I got really lucky and found my 1968 A/C vent box with perfect chrome vents that could easily pass for NOS ones. It came with a really nice black lower trim piece too. All I did was an Internet search and it came up on some weird Buy and Sell website in Colorado.

The seller told me it was sitting is his shop for 30 years. He also shipped it before I paid for it, and said if I didn't like it, I didn't have to pay!
 
I just got done setting up my el cheapo under dash AC unit in my 440/6 68 Dart because it gets pretty hot during the summer here. My set up: I got the AC comp bracket from Nostalgic AC Parts - They said it will bolt a Sanden SD508 up to a RB 440 or 426 Hemi. The bracket bolted up perfectly and was a $130 shipped to me. I got the compressor from my buddy that owns a Napa store and he said the SD508 compressor is for a Jeep Wrangler and comes with a dual v belt pulley - $250 (new comp with a lifetime guarantee) Compressor bolted up perfectly and even the pulleys lined up. I had to machine down the idler about 5/8" to make it line up with the inner groove. Under dash evap/fan unit is from Amazon - $140 shipped to me. I see cheaper ones but I thought $140 was cheap enough. Condenser is a universal 16x26 from Amazon w/#6, #8 fittings - $49 shipped to me. Condenser is a universal type so it has a ton of mounting holes on the vertical and horizontal edges and 4 holes on the vertical edge lined up with existing holes on the radiator support. I have it spaced about 1/2" away from the radiator. I bought two hose and fitting kits, drier, binary switch w pig tail from eBay er johnjoysyl - $150 shipped to me. Great guy to deal with and I figured if I screw up on some hoses or fittings, I have extras. My buddy let me borrow his AC hose crimping tool to crimp up the hoses. I charged it up to around #20 and I'm getting about 45 degrees out the vents, cold enough for me. The unit doesn't have a heater function so when you turn it warmer it just cycles the compressor more. On the warm setting it blows about 54-56 degrees. I'm in it about $720 in parts with extra hoses and fittings to easily do another car. Engine temp gets up to about 185-190 in stop and go traffic, seems to me ok but it's not summer here yet. Maybe dual electric fans later. I have a stock 3 row Dart 383 GTS 22"(?) rad with a new clutch fan assy and shroud. I also put a bottle of that Royal Purple ice stuff. When I bought the car it came with two radio panels so I hacked up the uglier one. The car was already heater delete so I cut a hole out where the AC controls came thru and zip tied the whole gauge panel in the dash. Since I in there I installed a Pioneer Digital Bluetooth player. No hacking in the dash required. Picked up my buddies and went to a cruise night last Sat at the mall, now we can't bear the thought of having to roll down the windows for ventilation. Also very little smoke comes into the car when doing burnouts.
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Really nice setup. $750 is an awesome price unlike vintage air for $2200 for just an in dash evaporator setup with a heater core. I piece stuff together myself and like how you went about doing that, selecting the parts you thought would fit your application the best. If you had part numbers of each item that you purchased i bet others on here could follow what you did.

I eventually want to do this with my 67, but need to get it together and running first lol. Need to figure out a way to add the a/c with my existing heater, because it does get very hot here in west Texas, but the winters are friggin cold too.
 
I just found this deal on evilbay. Granted it doesnt come w the engine pulleys or compressor mounting brackets but those can be bought , brackets can be made. Otherwise it looks to be a complete kit. Coming with everything else

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I have an original Air Temp, dealership installed underdash AC unit I may consider selling if anyone is interested
 
$359 is cheap. That one looks like a deluxe unit, it has chrome knobs. : )

AC comp bracket - Nostalgic AC Parts #3010. Bolts up a Sanden 508 to 383,400,426 hemi ,440. $119 shipped to me.
Compressor - Napa #274195 $260
Under dash evap unit - Amazon - (BuyAutoParts.com part# 16320019-101) $111 + $37 freight = $148. I think its a 12,700 BTU unit. It's on sale now for $103. LOL
Condenser - Amazon - (Climaparts part#CNFP1626) 16x26 parallel flow o ring #6, #8. $49.99 shipped to me. Condenser it probably bigger than it need to be but it fits. I shopped for price. LOL
Fitting, hose, drier kits - eBay (johnjoysyl) - 400897347090 Hose/fitting kit with drier & binary switch and pig tail - $88 shipped to me. Hose/fitting kit no drier - $73 shipped to me. Hoses are Parker brand. I did have to use one #6 90 degree elbow and some #6 hose from the second kit because the run from evap/drier/condenser was pretty long.
Freon, terminals, Purple Ice stuff, etc - Napa - Probably around $40-50.

My Dart doesn't have PS so that greatly simplified the install. My crank pulley is a 4 groove (It came with the pile of parts that came with the car when I bought it) and my alternator bracket is from Mancini with a Denso 60 amp alternator from the local Denso warehouse. I added a two groove pulley on the alternator to get the belt routing almost perfect. We almost never use our heaters here, so having it heater delete also simplified things a lot.

My buddy has a Vintage air set up in his 32 Ford 5 window and it's the bomb! It's top notch stuff well worth the money. My thinking was I drive a 50 year old sleeper patina Dart that looks the part, so a $750 AC system is good enough. It also puts me a little closer to a Dana 60.
 
BillGrissom said:
I bought a vintage knee-knocker on ebay (~$60) for my 64 Valiant. I don't know if any are "correct" since installed by dealers, K-mart, Sears, Western Auto, ... There was a Chrysler "Air Temp" brand or such, which might have had an under-dash version (forgot). You can buy new ones for $100 on ebay. Slicker is the Classic Air "behind dash" unit, which replaces your factory heater box and routes tubes thru a plate where the blower motor penetrated the firewall. A factory system won't exactly fit since the firewall was different in AC cars.
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I have Chrysler Airtemp Dealer installed in my Swinger. It does cool good.
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That dealer install airtemp is the bombdiggity, but a hella big bastard. I do love the chrome and woodgrain though. Where did they punch the holes in the firewall for the hoses on the dealer install setup? My 67 and my sons 69 are factory non A/C cars, i am thinking with black interiors in west Texas that we are going to need A/C. But also heaters as it does get down into the teens in the winter.
 
moparmat2000 said:
That dealer install airtemp is the bombdiggity, but a hella big bastard. I do love the chrome and woodgrain though. Where did they punch the holes in the firewall for the hoses on the dealer install setup? My 67 and my sons 69 are factory non A/C cars, i am thinking with black interiors in west Texas that we are going to need A/C. But also heaters as it does get down into the teens in the winter.
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Below the blower motor is where the refrigerant hoses come in. The evaporator drain tube exit's through the floor.
 
I guess i am lucky in some ways. Theres about 6 A bodies left in my local boneyard. All are A/C cars but missing a lot of stuff. One is i think a sears cool pak slant 6 car that may have used a york compressor. Engines ling gone, brackets and hoses are hanging. The hoses went thru the firewall where i circled in the picture with rubber grommets. Ok for a granny moredoor but not for a muscle car. I also noticed that parts of the factory A/C heater box were modded Non A/C parts. Like the heater box cover with the vent door being the same part, with a vacuum solenoid added to it to move an air door, and i think the heater core was the same for non a/c and a/c cars. That being said i think vintage air makes a 2 line bulkhead connector fitting. If theres enough room in this location to run the lines, I may go with one of those bulkhead fittings and two 90° fittings coming out of the firewall to run the lines along the firewall and along the inner fender, or 90° fitting / bulkhead connectors I will take some research pix next time i hit the junkyard and try to mimic the factory setup as much as possible.

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Though I didn’t do an under dash unit, I did add a Vintage Air Gen IV to my car. It’s an original ac car I didn’t have any parts for. I used twomof the bulk heads and ran the hoses under the fender.
I have heard the under dash units are great and get cold. I just wanted the heater function too since I was missing all the under dash and engine bay parts.

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The vents were individual items I plastic welded together to give the appearance of a more factory look.

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Thats a very nice setup you have. I like how you fit the vents together. Really good job. Looks factory. Kinda what i'm looking for but with temp and fan control knobs built in. Did you use a universal street rod heat, a/c unit? For under your dash? I ask that because your firewall is smoothed out. I think the vintage air custom fit ones come out of the firewall. I like the hidden hose idea however on my car it will have a lowered stance and wider tires, i am afraid of rubbing, or debris flinging up and puncturing a line. A shield prob could be made up to protect the lines.

I restored my stock heater box and am looking to add a under dash unit to compliment what i have. I have been looking at different under dash cool pak type units. I am figuring since its a barracuda coupe and not a fastback, i really only need 13 BTU rating to get it cool.

As far as pulleys i am going to go look at some M bodys in my local junky. Theres about 25 of em in various years. If the pulley setups will work off em then i will likely need 2 sets of everything. I have my 67 to do, and my sons 69 notchback to do.
 
moparmat2000 said:
Thats a very nice setup you have. I like how you fit the vents together. Really good job. Looks factory. Kinda what i'm looking for but with temp and fan control knobs built in. Did you use a universal street rod heat, a/c unit? For under your dash? I ask that because your firewall is smoothed out. I think the vintage air custom fit ones come out of the firewall. I like the hidden hose idea however on my car it will have a lowered stance and wider tires, i am afraid of rubbing, or debris flinging up and puncturing a line. A shield prob could be made up to protect the lines.

I restored my stock heater box and am looking to add a under dash unit to compliment what i have. I have been looking at different under dash cool pak type units. I am figuring since its a barracuda coupe and not a fastback, i really only need 13 BTU rating to get it cool.

As far as pulleys i am going to go look at some M bodys in my local junky. Theres about 25 of em in various years. If the pulley setups will work off em then i will likely need 2 sets of everything. I have my 67 to do, and my sons 69 notchback to do.
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I’m about a 1/4-1/2 inch front the bump stops using 1.03 bars and Hotchkis TVS system up front. I’m lowered as well but only a 205 tire. That said I have plenty of room for turning and such.

I did a complete Gen IV setup. Heater and AC in one. The firewall has aluminum plates covering the factory holes. I didn’t have the factory heater box nor any of the under hood parts. I decided the new technology would be better than trying to locate circa 67 stuff. This system is all electronic with no pull wires for the controller, and works really well. Good luck in your endeavors installing the ac when you find the one you want.
Cheers.

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