C2 Aftermarket A/C kits

[Scott S.]

Any info on either the Vintage Air or Classic Air aftermarket A/C kits? I'm looking to install one in my 65. Any pros or cons to either kit? Thanks

[George C.]

Re: C2 Aftermarket A/C kits

Scott,

I also

[George C.]

Re: C2 Aftermarket A/C kits

Scott,

I also have considered putting a unit in my 65. I have read a little about them, seems like you can put one in and not damage the car much if you want to remove it later for a factory appearance. I will also be following the words of wisdom from those who have been there and done that.

George
#36908

[Joe R.]

Re: C2 Aftermarket A/C kits

OK,

Yes, I have installed an Old Air Products (Dallas) in my 66 big block roadster and just love it. I also installed a heavy duty Be-Cool Radiator with electric fan furnished by Old Air. I installed both the cooling and heating unit. You remove the old box from the firewall and all that's there is a plate with hoses. All the coils are inside the car and you still have the complete glove box. Yes it does hang down about three inches below the glove box but there is a nice plastic plate to attach and cover the fan, etc.

It cools like no thing you have ever seen in a Corvette. The fan is called the hurricane fan and it does the job. You only have to drill two holes in the floorboard. One for the drain and another for support.

I used the stock brackets and A-6 compressor with R-134 Freon and R-22 connections. At first glance you would think it was stock under the hood but no big box on the firewall to get hot and ruin the nice AC.

I have seen the other system that is made in Ohio. I like the connections at the firewall for the Ohio system much better.

This 66 is running an LS-7, M-22 and 3.36 rear with hardtop only. It did not get over 180 degrees this summer when it was over 100 degrees outside here in the South. Made my little runs out in the country very enjoyable and cool.

Don't hesitate one minute to purchase a unit but I would recommend a radiator update with electric fan for a SB or BB.

I would be happy to answer any questions. Mail me at: vettenut007@comcast.net

Regards,

JR

[Timothy B.]

Re: C2 Aftermarket A/C kits

There are at least four companies out there making systems for C2's. Each has pros and cons. I too have been researching this for my 67, and I must tell you that I havn't yet found one that I am ready to go buy. Off the top of my head I believe the companies are:

Vintage Air in San Antonio

Hot Rod Air out of Selma Texas (which actually is near San Antonio)

Classic Auto Air out of Tampa

Old Air Products out of Fort Worth

Each one of these have websites that you can research. The biggest thing that I see as a negative with all but one of them (can't recall right now which, but I think it is the one out of Tampa) is that they do not allow temp control by mixing hot and cold air like a normal A/C system does. Most of them are full hot or full cold. They will try to tell you that you can control how cold the air is by adjusting a thermostat that senses temp in the cooling coils. It is true that you can do this, but that is not a good way to control temperature. Automotive a/c system are typically designed such the system cycles to prevent freeze up of the cooling coils in the car, either by using a pressure switch in the coolant line or by using a capillary tube thermostat in the coils themselves. This maximizes comfort in the car by removing the most humidity from the air. Temperature of the air coming out of the vents is controlled by mixing the cooled air with bypass or even heated air to the desired temperature. The coils are automatically kept at their coldest point without freeze up. More moisture from the air condenses out and is removed from the car the colder the cooling coils are. If the system has no bypass or mix capability, then the only way to keep the a/c from freezing you out is to lower the fan speed or force the compressor to cycle less and allow the cooling coils temp to increase. This cools the air less buy also allows more humid air to circulate.

With these systems the effect of this is reduced by not bringing in fresh air. The Vintage Air system and some of the others only circulate inside air.

I suggest you find their websites and see what you can find out on your own about the options. All of the systems are not the same. One DOES allow mixing of air. Some of them require more mods to the car than others. One requires you to drill out the control cable holes in your dash for example. It would be a good idea to get a copy of the installation manuals for each one and see for sure that that particular system requires to install.

I have talked to several who have installed the Vintage Air system and heard good comments overall. I haven't found anyone yet who has experience with more than one brand, so making good comparisons is a challenge. If I can find some more info at the office tomorrow I will try to post again.

[Wayne C.]

Re: C2 Aftermarket A/C kits

I don't have direct experience, but I've made note of some past responses to this question, mostly back in the 2001 to 2003 timeframe. You might try doing an archive search.

There seemed to be general agreement that the Vintage Air setup, choosing the Sanden compressor option and 134A refrigerant, is the preferred setup and requires the fewest modifications to the car. Be sure to order the unit specific to your year, otherwise you may find freon hose lengths aren't always right and you may then need to have a local a/c shop fabricate hoses, particularly the ones routed to the condensor in front of the radiator (to avoid drilling holes in the radiator support to accomodate the hoses).

Another poster said he didn't like the switches that came with the kit so he replaced them with beefier switches. Another said he wasn't happy with the appearance of the compressor bracket so he used a stock passenger-side exhaust manifold and alternator bracket from a passenger-side alternator Corvette to fabricate his own mounting that looked like a mirror image of the driver's side alternator mounting and thus had a factory appearance (but he didn't say what year Corvette this was installed in, or even which compressor was used).

[Gerard F.]

I did Vintage Air in a non-air 67 conv

this past year. I really like it. It was easy to put in, I did it myself, and the instructions were great. You can download the installation manual at their web site.

You replace your whole heater box with their evaporator unit which fits like a glove, behind and slightly below the glove box. It uses your same heater fan and defroster controls. You have to change your heater hoses, water pump and crankshaft pulleys if you don't have origial A/C. Nice little Sanden compressor, I went for R134a. They give you these molded plastic radio side panels which have larger vents, and are a little on the chinzy side ( but in the position they are in, they don't stand out). If you're putting it on a 67, make sure you order it with the special side panels which have the side vent pull locations.

I really love my system, it makes the car usable in the summer. It cools well, and I haven't noticed any overheating problems on my 327/300Hp/3.08.

The down side is no outside air, it just recirculates the cabin air. You adjust the cooling or heating with the fan speed. It is either cold , hot or off. You have to use the side vents, for any fresh air.

The other downer is the air circulation. Even though it has right and left side outlets like original air, a majority of the air in cooling and also in heating comes out the radio panel vents and blows across the ash tray and center console. You can control this somewhat by pulling the defroster vent but not all the way. Without the vent between the clock and speaker like original air, all of the cooling air seems to come in real low.

If I were to advise Vintage Air on improving their system, I'd tell them to come up with a modification that draws fresh air from the right side vent directly into fan intake, and an outlet system which uses the original radio side panels and dumps cool air up the defroster vents. It can be done, and with a little time and experimentation, I might do it myself.

One good thing about the system, is that there are no irreversible changes. If you want to go back to original, you can just replace the parts you took off. There's no drilling or cutting of the firewall or console, like some other systems I've researched.

The system works for me, hope this helps you.

Jerry Fuccillo
#42179

[Gerard F.]

And the freon lines fit just right on the 67

Couldn't believe it that they bent the lines just right to use existing holes in the radiator frame. And the condensor just slipped right in, in front of the radiator using the radiator mount bolt locations. A 65 make be different.

Jerry Fuccillo

[Gerard F.]

Compressor Setup

This is the polished aluminum compressor (not standard) with Vintage Air

[Jack W.]

Re: I did Vintage Air in a non-air 67 conv

to add to your information, I took a VA system OFF of my 65 after I bought it, and after sourcing the radio side panels (seller had not saved his originals) I was able to return the car to stock appearence, although I had to buy a new control cable as one of them gets sacrificed / modded for use with the VA setup. new heater hose also required, something got installed in-line as part of the VA system. also note that, on a 65, it threw the alt over to the D-side, meaning the harness had to be modded, and then modded back, and D-side alt mounting hardware had to be obtained. and then undone.

so the "no permanent harm" claim is largely true. If you save everything.

[Timothy B.]

Post photos??

It would be really helpful for those of us who are trying to decide which brand of a/c system to add to our cars if those of you who have done so could post some photos of your installed system and particularly during the install, showing fit, etc. Thanks to Gerard for his post. Anyone have photos of the other brands of systems that they could post?

[Paul L.]

Retro A/C Possible with Powerglide?

I have a 1967 with Powerglide. The transmission cooler is in front of the rad, presumably where the condensor must be mounted. What is done under these circumstances?

[Timothy B.]

Hot Rod Air

Here is some info on the Hot Rod Air system. More info can be found at:

www.hotrodair.com

This is an excerpt from an email I received from one of the reps in response to questions I had:

"...This system will provide you with a/c, heat and defrost and is designed to install in your car without any major modifications. The car will maintain a factory look inside and out except for the firewall. The evaporator will mount up behind the dash and use two round vents on left & right side, the center vent will adapt into the center console. You will have a thermostat control when in the a/c mode along with being able to blend hot and cold air in the heat and defrost modes much like a later model climate control. We are the manufacturer of this system and will back it with a FIVE YEAR PARTS REPLACEMENT WARRANTY. In comparison [with other brands] our unit has the blending capability in the vent and floor heat and defrost modes, and our warranty." "The compressor does mount on the passenger side in the 67 kit, the picture is a 65 that mounts on the driver side. Our kit will allow you to keep the factory heater box mounted to the firewall, we provide a plate that covers the original blower motor hole and the lines will exit through this plate..."

After talking to their reps, I determined that their system doesn't really "blend" for temp control, but allows you to use the a/c thermostat to control the temp of the cooling coils. This is the same as Vintage air actually, so no advantage here. The Hot Rod Air system does use use the factory radio side panels so that would give good in car appearance. Some mods of the car are required with the system, such as enlarging holes in the bezels for new controls. You don't have to enlarge the holes in the dash luckily. The controls use factory knobs but rotate only, they perform their function without any push-pull motion. The system uses only recirculated air like the others best I can tell. Vacuum controlled pots are used to operate the doors in the air box. One thing that is interesting with this system is that it uses the FACTORY blower box under the hood. Only the blower itself is removed and a flat plate goes over the blower hole and the a/c hoses pass thru there. The heater hoses go thru the same place as factory. This likely gives a better under-hood appearance than any of the other systems.

In looking at this system, I can see that it would be GREAT if the left control was also a push pull knob in addition to just fan speed (like factory is now). That way, the heater water hose valve could be a cable controlled valve that would permit full control of how much water flow you allowed. This would permit temp control while keeping the evaporator coils at their coldest point for best humidity control. I have asked their tech department to access this as a mod. Also, even though their system is only recirculated air, it might be an easy mode to allow it to pull in outside air since it uses the factory blower box and the source is right next to the new blower inlet. They have you install a cover plate to cover the hole where the factory heater core used to be. Overall, interesting system. Anyone installed this one??

[John H.]

Re: Vintage Air

I installed a Vintage Air "Supercooler" R-134A system with a Sanden compressor when I built my tube-frame Grand Sport; they made a couple of custom hard lines for the condenser to my drawings, and I made up the soft lines using their bulk hoses and fittings and had them crimped at a local A/C shop for appearance. I used their supplied compressor and alternator bracketry (made by Alan Grove Components - street rod supplier). You could hang meat in the car after about five minutes. The main disadvantages I noted then (1996) apparently continue today - they are recirc only (no outside air), and the only temp control in A/C mode is fan speed - no blending of cold and hot air like a normal GM re-heat temp control system.

[Roy B.]

Re: C2 Aftermarket A/C kits

Added VA in my 67 coup and works good. VA should=
1. Remake the glove box to be shorter in death so that the air hoses aren't squeezed
2. Make the two dash cables shorter so that you don't need to coil them.
3. Add out side air inlet.
I had to add the radiator fan they sell to help the engine temp. Instead of using their fan heat switch to turn the fan on, I use a toggle switch which I turn the fan on when I turn the air on.
Other wise I do like it, better then no air in a Ca. coup.327-350HP, 4 speed.