Has anyone ever put a factory air system in a non-factory a/c car? Mine had a dealer installed a/c system installed and I am switching to a factory a/c but ran across the drivers side cowl vent. Apparently the dealer cut it up to put in the a/c vent. I would to remove it to free up some space under the dash but just leaving it out will allow constant air flow in. How have any of you dealt with this?
Find a non-a/c car, and get the drivers side vent from it. It screws to the dash, covers the cowl vent, and has a little cable that screws to the package tray. If you have a '73 or later car with a glove box, just get one from a non-a/c car, and put it in. Should solve the problem.
Factory air cars do not have a drivers side air vent. They dont even cut the hole out in the cowl. You can just cut out a flat piece of metal and seal it over the whole with sheet metal screws and silicon. There is alot to installing a factory set up in a car. Biggest problem is finding a decent system to use. All the doors in the heater/ac box are controled by vacuum and the vacuum switch is the first thing that breaks. The boxes themselves are made of some fiber material and get brittle with age so trying to find one that dont break apart isnt the easiest thing either. Unless your dead set on the factory look, I'd check some of the companies like Vintage Air and see what they have to offer. I have put a factory ac system in a non fact ac car so if you decide to go this route, let me know. I can give you more details if you want.
I have the complete donor car on hand so I can figure out what goes where and that is why I figured I would use that system. The heater box is in good shape just need to replace the heater core. I have several vacuum switches which I believe all work, the one from the donor was shot. The door actuators all work, have tested those. I plan on putting in a new fan motor. I was wondering if you could get away with just bolting a flat sheet over the cowl vent. Would you ever an a problem with water accumulating there?
Water should not accumulate because the top hat will prevent it from ever touching the plate. That's providing yours is not rusted out. If it don't leak now, it's probably OK. Having a donor car there will make it much easier to see how it all goes together. I would also take the evaporator and expansion valve down and have it clean and tested before installing the box in the car. Also have new hoses made up and put all new "O" rings at every connection. One last thing to consider is converting over to a Sandon compressor. Its about $300 or so for a kit, but they are lighter, more efficient, and take a fraction of the horse power to run compared to the York. One last thing for now, I would also keep R12 in it. It is more expensive but the system is designed for it and will work much better, especially at idle and slow speeds.
