One of the greatest inventions known to mankind is arguably air conditioning. Why do you think people in the Middle East are always fighting each other?! It's too dang hot, that's why! Spend an hour or so in bumper-to-bumper traffic in the dead of summer and you'll know how those people feel. But I digress. Maybe it's just regional politics. Anyways, that's an argument for another time and place. Right now, we're going to take a look at what makes installing a Vintage Air climate control system in your truck not only logical, but reasonably easy.
The system we'll be installing in the project F-1 is their Gen II Compac unit that features heating, cooling, and defrost capabilities in a compact package. As always, we're gonna add a CCT twist and make their kit fit our needs; after all, it wouldn't be Custom Classic Trucks if we did a straight install now would it?!
The first step is to locate where the evaporator (that's the black thing that goes up under the dash) is going to mount. We went with the Gen II Compac unit because it provides the most bang for your buck (re: cooling and heating capability) in a compact size. This will enable us to mount it nice and high behind the dash, keeping it out of sight for the most part. Since we're building the truck as a '50's-era custom, we want to play down some of the more contemporary items if we can, and this is one of those items. Plus, it leaves plenty of room for the passenger and keeps the inside of the firewall uncluttered. One of the drawbacks of mounting it as high as we did however, is that it ate up the space used by the glovebox, but that's one of the consolations we decided to make. We used a pair of floor jacks and some bits of an old hanger to hold the evaporator in place while the mounting brackets were fabricated. It was pretty straight forward and since every application will be slightly different, we'll skip that part. We will say that Vintage Air does provide a number of different brackets to get you started, which were very helpful.
Once the evaporator was in place, it was time to sort out the A/C vents. Once again, we didn't want the install to overbear the '50's vibe of the truck so we used Vintage Air's underdash vents mounted on a hide-away hinge that enables them to be tucked away, out of sight when not in use for the passenger and driver side vents. For the center outlet, we reconfigured the stock Ford heater box to direct the air up the center of the cab and out either side, controlled by the mechanical doors on the box. This enabled us to maintain the aesthetic while maximizing the A/C unit's efficiency of cooling and heating the cab evenly. One thing we did leave out are the defrost vents at the top of the dash. The Pontiac dash angles away from the rather vertical windshield at over 90-degrees which would make angling the vents towards the windshield fairly difficult. At this point, we opted to exclude the vents but we'll probably come back and install something at a later date.
Since we're still in the fabrication phase of the F-1 build, some of the install steps have been left out. While there are a few technical aspects we don't cover, like installing and crimping the hose ends (using a 134A crimping tool) and lubricating the O-rings, and installing the heater hoses, these are things that will be done once the truck is painted and in final assembly. At this point, the initial install is complete with all the major components in place, the important hoses cut and marked to be crimped, and what little fabrication that needs to be done, is completed.
Way back when we originally...
Way back when we originally cut out the stock dash, we took advantage of the absence of the dash to test fit the Vintage Air Gen II Compac. Old hangers work good to hold the unit in place while the mounting brackets can be sorted out.
With the Pontiac dash installed,...
With the Pontiac dash installed, a peek through the glovebox reveals how we took advantage of the tall dash and mounted it as high as possible to hide it. Mounting it this high renders the stock glovebox pretty useless; we'll use the space instead to mount the stereo head unit and other odds and ends.
Our kit comes with a brand-new...
Our kit comes with a brand-new Sanden compressor that is mounted to the engine. The top, or suction, hose is a #10 A/C hose, which is the low-pressure return from the evaporator. The lower, or discharge, hose is a #8 A/C hose, which is the high-pressure out to the condenser. Those red and blue caps cover the service ports which are used to charge, evacuate, or service the system.
These are the two hoses that...
These are the two hoses that will connect to the condenser, once in place. For now, the #8 high-pressure hose (top) and the #6 high-pressure or liquid line hose (bottom) are mocked in place to determine proper routing. Always be sure to mount the condenser with the #8 (high pressure gas) fitting on top and the smaller #6 (high pressure liquid) fitting on the bottom.
The opposite end of the lower,...
The opposite end of the lower, liquid line hose will be routed to the evaporator via a firewall bulkhead. Vintage Air provides a template that is useful in getting all the proper holes drilled in the firewall.
Once it's determined where...
Once it's determined where the bulkhead should be located, the template is attached, marked, and drilled to spec. One helpful tip worth pointing out is that Vintage Air provides detailed instructions with their kits as well as being available for download at their website.
Here's the installed bulkhead...
Here's the installed bulkhead fitting with the low-pressure suction hose to the compressor on the bottom right and the high-pressure liquid line from the condenser to the evaporator on the bottom left. The two barb fittings at the top are for the heater hoses, which will be installed at final assembly. Crimp fittings for heater hoses are also available.
Here's what the bulkhead fitting...
Here's what the bulkhead fitting looks like from inside the cab. The tight 90-degree fittings will keep everything under the interior carpet via a formed access panel.
Since the high- and low-pressure...
Since the high- and low-pressure lines are different sizes (#6 and #10), it's pretty simple to figure out which end attaches to the evaporator. The barb fittings are for the heater hoses, which need not be crimped.