midnight1957

Has anyone ever installed AC in a 62 Vette and if so do you know of anyones chromed AC and ALT brackets that will fit and clear under the hood of a 62 Vette?
Thanks

Ironcross

I dont know of any conversions in existance but if I was to select one I would go to a street rod system. Several friends already have theirs AC`d. Many of those early rods are exrtremely limited for space and one of the compact rod AC systems may work.

Jvmc

Saw a 62' at Carlisle with AC. It was a red resto rod sitting out in the judging area most of Friday up against the fence. Gentlman was from NC, can't find his phone #, but I assume you may be able to contact the shows office to find out who had their car judged on friday. It was judged in the modified class.....

dazvet

Be patient, WMF62 should be along shortly and I believe he is installing air in his 62 right now, should have some information for you.

my58

Alan grove at

http://www.alangrovecomponents.com/

has the brackets you need.

I have the alternator bracket on my 58 and it works great.

wmf62

yep, here i am; right on cue....

i did a LOT of searching before i decided who's kit i was going to use. it seems as if nothing goes simple (for me...); for something that should be a bolt-in, it has been causing me some more gray hairs...

my a/c package is from Hot Rod Air (HRA) and the alt & compressor brackets are from Alan Grove. the standard HRA 'kit' puts the compressor on the driver's side but i have FI and i really didn't like the way they ran their hoses when the compressor is mounted on the driver's side (look at their installation instructions on their website) so i asked to have the compressor switched from the driver's side to the passenger's side and purchased an Alan Grove alt bracket for the driver's side.

for reasons i still don't understand, the comp didn't have any room for adjustment of the belt, so Alan Grove remade the brackets so that i could adjust the compressor. (seems like i ran across a numbers of 'firsts' in doing this install, but i suspect a lot had to do with the swapping of sides; BUT i highly recommend moving the compressor to the passenger side as it makes more sense for it to be there.

anyway, the new brackets came today and soon as the paint dries (they're bare carbon steel), i should be able to install them tomorrow. with any kind of luck, and no new surprises, i should have a/c by next week.....












Bill

richbopp

In addition to the superb AC unit.... the paint is amazing. Can you tell me where that was done? I am considering going back to original color and would only do it if the final product looked as good as yours.

wmf62

thank you....

i painted it myself at the local VoTech; couldn't afford the $5,000+ that people wanted to do it so i took the autobody course in order to have work space and access to their facilities...



Bill

INMYBLOOD

WMF62 I take it that this is a heat/cool system????? I'll be waiting also to hear how it turns out. Let us know how things work. IE Fan speeds, noise.

Thanks Gordon.

Muttley

Bill, looks like a nice installation. Paint looks great too.
-David

magicv8

Wow - nice job stuffing it all under the hood. Just as complex as c2 BB with A-C, ps, and pb, but the factory did that.

PS: great paint and a great idea using the school facility.

vetteberry

I installed classic auto air unit in my 61 with Alan Grove brackets and compressor on passenger side. It is a nice unit I would sure recomend.

wmf62

yes, it's a heat/cool and seems to be quite compact.

a 3 speed fan motor; the fan(s) are double squirrel cage blowers (one on each end of a center motor) and the noise level seems to be acceptable. air blows from the rear of the evaporator (through the heater core and then cooling core, so it is possible to blend heat/cool air temp) to the front and then is ducted by hose to the vents, defrosters, floor level by vacuum motor operated doors in the exaporator and the defroster/floor distribution box.

pic with face off evap showing diverter door for vents or defroster/floor level.


pic of defroster/floor vent distribution box. vacuum motor operates door inside to direct flow to either defroster or floor.



Bill

wmf62

a standard Classic Air installation won't work well with a FI car because of all the 'stuff' on the driver's side.

AND, i liked the looks of Hot Rod Air's vents better.

Bill

INMYBLOOD

One more clarification for me. You can ask for passenger side compressor and they taylor the kit for it.
IE: shorten the pressure lines?

wmf62

a qualified "YES".... at the moment

when i get done, they should know enough about the fit to tell them: "Give me one just like Bill Fleckenstein's.. ". i am going to have to shorten the hoses they sent, replace the port fittings on the compressor ends of the #8 & #10 hoses with regular 90s and install in-line splices with ports in these hoses . i've oriented the ports on the compressor towards the fenderwell (instead of straight up so i can get hood clearance). when i installed the furnished 90 fittings with the built-in port, there wasn't enough room to be able to get a a/c gauge/fill hose on it. with the in-line ports i can have all the room i need. the best way would probably be to have them send the hoses with just the condenser and evaporator ends crimped on the 2 hoses that have port fittings, and have the in-line port splices and compressor end 90s shipped loose so that you can get them crimped locally (although you could ship the hoses back to them after you figure out where you want the fittings installed and how you want the fittings oriented and they will crimp them for you).

if everything works as i hope, i'm going to have a better installation than their standard kit that i received.
Bill

93RUBYAN

Have you tried VintageAir in San Antonio? They have some of the very best in systems, brackets and assemblies.

I would highly recommend them.

www.vintageair.com

John McGraw

At this time, I believe that VA only offers a cooling only setup for the C1 and uses the existing heat setup. Hot Rod Air's setup is the best there is for C1 cars, in my opinion. I used one of their setups in my 59, and I was real happy with it. I am using Vintage Air's setup in my 65. No one vendor makes the best setup for all cars. I decided to mke my own hoses since I was using a LS1 engine, but I believe I would do so even if I was using a stock engine.


Regards, John McGraw

wmf62

i sent for and reviewed Vintage Air's installation instructions. there were 2 things i wasn't fond of:
1. you have to cut the passenger side kick panel to clear the blower motor, and completely remove the knee brace behind the kick panel, because the fan assembly sits in that space.
2. it's a cool only unit, you keep your stock heater.

my biggest problem was #1, the kick panel was too valuable to destroy. AND, removing the diagonal brace weakens the header it supports.
Bill

ps: new compressor mounting bracket installed, compressor is now installed - again... (note orientation of compressor ports with the new compressor mount as opposed to the orientation with the old mount as shown in my first pictures)

firstgear

very clever idea!!!!