VintageAir Heating / AC
05 Mar 2022 - mdr
It’s summer, it’s San Diego, it’s hot. If it were just me I wouldn’t mind rolling around without A/C, but one of my favorite things is to load up the family and head to get ice cream and it’s pretty unbearable without a solid air conditioning system.
I used the VintageAir GenIV Magnum - details here.
The Gen IV has heater, AC, and defrost.
I had to remove the glove box and pretty much everything behind the dash to squeeze it in. I also had to sorta torque the dash a bit to shove it up there. It’s kinda too big for the space behind the dash :)
You can contact VintageAir and get just the potentiometers for the GenIV system - I didn’t really like any of the premade things so I used a space on the lower dash for the knobs, and found some old guitar knobs I thought looked cool.
I had originally bought the OEM vents off of ebay but when I added them under the dash I just didn’t like the way it looked. They old vents are really big and they don’t really direct air as much as you think they would - mostly your right knee just gets cold :) I ended up getting 3 VintageAir aluminum vents and modifying a triple gauge cluster for under the dash to hold them. It still kinda keeps the same feeling but is much less intrusive and the vents work really well.
The lines come out of the firewall and the dryer is underneath the front fender behind the grill. I have 3 electric fans (1 main fan and 2 smaller fans) - I have it hooked up to a trinary switch so that if the pressure is too high the smaller fans kick on to alleviate. So far this only really happens when I’m testing it and it’s not really hot out. On warmer days (over 75degress and sunny) the main fan usually stays on unless I’m on the highway and keeps everything cool enough.
I also ended up adding 2 vents in the gauge cluster for a little more direct air - they work OK… not great but definitely better than no vents so I’d say that’s a win!
Charging was relatively easy - I added 28oz of coolant (based on VintageAir suggestion) and needed to add maybe 3/4 more to get it dialed in. I definitely have some cleaning up to do but it’s blowing cold and I’m happy! Certainly makes summer driving in San Diego much more pleasant.
