Vintage Air Question

[Dusty]

That is very cool Ed

So you bent up the hoses yourself?
I also like how you cut out part of the bracket to accommodate them.

What is the bottom picture of however?
My Gen IV does not look like that?

[sonoraed]

Yeah it just occurred to me the pictures needed some explanation, far as bending the tubes I have the equipment to make o-ring fittings and bend lines,the bottom picture is the back side of control head installed in dash,one of the reasons I am installing a 89 grand waggie dash other than it looks better is the OEM (1989) control head can be modified to run the Vintage Air cable controllers ,the pictures shows that the controllers clear the radio and glove box, oem defrost ducts had to go would be in the way,I used VA's 66 GTO control head kit which allows you to use the oem blower switch and the two horizontal sliders control function and temp,to modify the head I cut the bottom slider from another oem head and bolted to the top of the control head I'm using, which allows two cable levers to attach to VA's cable controllers

[Dusty]

I guess another question.

If your heater tubes run out through the firewall, where did you mount your heater control solenoid/hot water valve?
Vintage Air in the directions, tells us to mount it inside.

I am not sure I like the idea of mounting it in the cabin?
It is mechanical, and the body is made of plastic. Meaning it has the propensity to leak at some point I reckon?

Also I was thinking of welding nuts to the back mounting bracket. It would be easier to Maybe service the unit that way when the time comes? Just unbolt it from inside the engine compartment.

[243]

I am really happy you posted the VA air control panel, I did not know that part existed and part of my reluctance to install Autometer gauges in the existing cluster is having to use the old air control panel.

[Dusty]

dusty, where are you mounting the controller? dimensionally it looks like it won't fit in the oe heater control spot or will it?

Jeeptchr I am actually doing a custom dash panel. A single piece of aluminum that runs the width of the dash. But before I decided on custom gauges, I was going to make a panel where the factory ash tray, radio, and clock would have been. Then I would have mounted it in the middle where the radio went.

On a side note.

The speed store where I bought my VA system was installing a Gen IV into a 66 Mustang, and they had customized the factory control panel to use it with the Vintage Air. It was very cool, but a tad bit of fabrication work. Nothing a FSJer couldn't do?

[Jeeptchr]

Dusty, That's exactly what I'm looking to do with the cable converters, I was talking with a local dealer and we were trying to figure out which "vehicle kit" to buy to get me the correct parts to start fabricating with, I'm fortunate enough to have 2 dashes here to tinker with.

[SJTD]

Don't forget to insulate the aluminum return line from the evaporator or it'll be dripping.

[Dusty]

Don't forget to insulate the aluminum return line from the evaporator or it'll be dripping.

VA sends the "tar" (I don't know what to call it?) insulation wrap for those lines in the kits.

[sonoraed]

Vintage Air's Gen IV water control valve can be mounted inside or outside their not pretty so inside would look better but there's not enough room in my Jeep to mount inside, one of the reason is the HVAC heater core input/output nipples are threaded and require a #10 FMO x 5/8" hose fitting to transition to the 5/8" heater valve nipple (at least on the htr valve side) and then the hose would go thru the firewall or transition back to a metal tube,I tried to do that with my Jeep but just not enough room to cleanly do it,was helping a local Hot Rod shop install a Gen IV on a 58 Impala and they got the Htr valve on the inside but wasn't pretty and has to be covered with a carpeted panel
The defroster ducts on mine are from VA their narrow and not as long just made a extension bracket painted black and attached to the oem holes,clears the wiper arms and hopefully will do a decent job
I think welding bolts to inside of the firewall to attach the mounting bracket is great idea other than you'd have to pull the dash if unit needed to be removed, hot rod fab shops do that all the time for a clean firewall look

[sonoraed]

picture of modified 89 wagoneer control head with VA cable controllers

[The PIG Smith]

Zack Heisey from Z&M Jeeps installed a Vintage Air unit in his project "Humpty".
Humpty is a ultra nice J20 powered by a Cummins 4BT and backed by a NV4500 5 speed. (IMHO, probably the nicest J20 on the planet)
I will invite him to this conversation and maybe he will provide some more details

[sonoraed]

Dusty, the aluminum tubes could be purchased from several places such as Vintage Air,they come with female o-ring fittings both ends and are a fixed length (one foot two foot etc) and tubing benders can be bought online (pure choice motorsport) or simple benders at o'reilly's and other places,or I can make a straight pieces for you with FMO on one end MIO on the other end (like in the pic's) just time and materials ($30.00??) and postage, the insulation tape around suction tube and at expansion valve is called prestite tape and cheap a 25 foot roll is $10 and a small piece comes with kit, unless you live in a humid area (lots of sweating) just wrap the exp valve toward the evap and what tape is left put around the evap outlet on the suction tube

[zmjeeps]

I don't remember exactly which one was bigger, the defrost port on the box or the ones in the dash. I do remember, I bought some larger air duct hose that fit the larger and slit it and taped it to get it to fit on the smaller. Works well.

Zack

[Dusty]

Hey Zack!

Nice at see your still kicking.

[sonoraed]

Installing a surefit kit in 79 Z28 control head is really small thought it work in the older Jeep panel

[Jeeptchr]

sonoraed, any chance you could get overall dimensions of the slider assembly itself?

[sonoraed]

Pictures are not very good will post tomorrow at work

[Dusty]

So today was the annual Wrightwood Classic Car Show.

And to my chagrin about 98% of the air conditioning units in the classic hot rods, and trucks were all Vintage Air units.

[sonoraed]

Vintage Air really is the top dog in the aftermarket A/C world,esp their Gen IV unit, I have installed or repaired most all of the available brands out there and there are some unit designs that make wonder how they thought it could work

[letank]

bringing this back on top.... if I make it to Ouray.... I need AC... and at $2.3x a gallon.... Seems like a bargain....

Reading thru many posts, vintage air is the ticket but requires major aggravating mods. Doing a price check, VA at $1500 vs. OEM total refurbish with master cool hose crimper and dual manifold is in the $900.

My only question is going from flare to O-ring fitting, can we get all the O-rings fitting at Sanden compressor and expansion valve - evaporator connection?

Need to post in the OEM section...