The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk AC for 57 chev pickup?

I have a 57 chev pickup, heavily modified with 305/auto/ps/pb, etc. Getting hot here in central NC and thinking air conditioning. Have seen the vintage air setups for $1000-which look fine but awfully darned expensive.

Has anyone installed an 'old' (read salvaged and repaired) ac system into a fifties pickup? Looking for a probably 1960's setup small enough to fit under dash.

Thoughts?

Every air conditioning install i've seen in those old trucks was either expensive and labor intensive, or cheap and even more labor intensive.

I don't see why you couldn't rip a functional AC unit out of a later model vehicle and rig it in there.. anything can be done in your price range when you have the will the skill, and the ingenuity.

One problem with the "old", salvageable units is most of them use Freon 12. In addition, depending on the age, the hoses may well be on their way to rotting and not the right length. If you get a unit with any age, thus at a cheap price, the unit will have to be converted to one of the newer refrigerants. By the time you do that, and by the other parts you will need, like brackets and hoses, I think you are spinning your wheels. Plus - do want to hang just anything under your dash just because it's cheap? :mad:

Not that the rest still wouldn't be a pain, but a drop- in replacement for R-12 is available. It is compatible with the old oil in the system. Just evacuate (recover) and re-charge.

Thats what I was thinking.. when my wifes 95 Fjord Exploder AC went the way of all sinners, I bagged a kit from walmart for under $30 and a seperate can of some AC stop leak stuff. I hit it with the stop leak then the new stuff, and the AC has been blowing artic cold for two years now.

Same story with my '91 Jimmy and several friends older cars. The "conversion" is nothing more than an adapter that just screws on to the old fitting.

I have been toying with making a small water chiller and simply using the existing heater core as a chilled water coil. I (almost) never need heat.

Train Driver, that sounds like an interesting idea. Can you provide more detail about what you were thinking?

Same basic system as a standard auto system. Instead of the evaporator in the cab, a small freon to water heat exchanger is placed in line. A water pump would be needed to circulate the water and the heater box would need work to manage the condensate. With the right valves, I think that even the heater would still work.

The A/C guy here at work is interested in trying it and has located the parts in A/C catalogs.

I used the factory compresser & brackets that went with the engine in my 1970. I got a Vintage- Air inside unit but wanted to use an underdash but there is not enough space between the dash & firewall on the 70. I got a condenser from the salvage yard & a helpful parts man from Carquest got the fittings & hose to make up the hoses.

I don't really want to help hijack jones' thread, but train driver, if you and your buddy get the idea working, take lots of pictures, write it up, and submit it as a Tech Tip. Now, back to jones' query.

I installed an Old Air Hurricane unit in my '54 ... much less money than Vintage, and (other than prices) I can't see any differences between the two. After 2 years, I'm very happy with it!

And then, there's always the cheaper/easier under-the-dash units that you can buy anywhere - like at JEGS -- that I replaced in my truck:
See A Picture of Both Here

You can view all the notes on my install Here