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64 a/c question.

Wtrfwl havoc

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Hey all. I just picked up a 64 4door polara parts car. It will be a parts car for the things i can use on my 2 door hardtop. The parts car has factory a/c. Would I be better off to sell the factory a/c and go with a vintage air system or use the factory one. I want a cold a/c not sure how these old ones preformed. What are your suggestions?
 
Just my opinion, but the factory system should work just fine. They would freeze you out when operating properly on R-12. Now that we need to retrofit to R-134a the efficiency can drop by up to 20%, but should still work fine. Wish I could find a factory set-up for my wife Carmen's '64!
 
Just working on a factory system today, only a new style compressor.
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Factory all the way! No China parts please! You may have to dig for a few items in the process but it will fit great.
 
I had the same deal as you. I came across a '64 parts car that originated in Tennessee up here in Ontario that had factory air and tinted glass. Canadian-built 1964 Dodges were never available with factory air conditioning, so I decided to transfer the system from my parts car to my good one. Long story; short, it never worked very well, and then the heater core failed. Now that I am redoing the car, I tossed the original broken system and am in the process of installing Vintage Air. Since no one makes a complete kit for a '64, I am piecing mine together. It is quite a jigsaw puzzle. There are a couple of threads on this forum about this, and I have received advice and help from members on my project. One of the downfalls of the original system is the vacuum operated control switch. The vacuum nipples on the back of the switch get brittle over time and break off.
 
I had the same deal as you. I came across a '64 parts car that originated in Tennessee up here in Ontario that had factory air and tinted glass. Canadian-built 1964 Dodges were never available with factory air conditioning, so I decided to transfer the system from my parts car to my good one. Long story; short, it never worked very well, and then the heater core failed. Now that I am redoing the car, I tossed the original broken system and am in the process of installing Vintage Air. Since no one makes a complete kit for a '64, I am piecing mine together. It is quite a jigsaw puzzle. There are a couple of threads on this forum about this, and I have received advice and help from members on my project. One of the downfalls of the original system is the vacuum operated control switch. The vacuum nipples on the back of the switch get brittle over time and break off.

I have been leaning towards vintage air because of the exact same thing you said about the vacuum operated controls. Did you use the factory vents, or did you get more vents and everything.
 
I have been leaning towards vintage air because of the exact same thing you said about the vacuum operated controls. Did you use the factory vents, or did you get more vents and everything.
I have the factory vents, so I will use them. One downside is that you have to block off the factory fresh air hole on the passenger side of lower cowl. Because of space considerations, I ordered the Vintage Air Super Gen 2, heat, cool, and defrost. I am going to reinstall the original defrost ducts under the dash at the base of the windshield and plumb them to the new unit. The factory flip up vents on the top of the dash will now only be used for AC. I originally ordered a 22" wide condenser because that is what my radiator is. Because of the way the condenser is constructed, I found that this was too narrow. I have exchanged it for a 24" X 14" piece. I am going to run the heater hoses through the fire wall near the passenger side inner fender panel. Again, for space considerations, the A.C. lines will have to go out through the inner fender at the suspension adjustment hole, and through the cowl under the front fender.
 
I have the factory vents, so I will use them. One downside is that you have to block off the factory fresh air hole on the passenger side of lower cowl. Because of space considerations, I ordered the Vintage Air Super Gen 2, heat, cool, and defrost. I am going to reinstall the original defrost ducts under the dash at the base of the windshield and plumb them to the new unit. The factory flip up vents on the top of the dash will now only be used for AC. I originally ordered a 22" wide condenser because that is what my radiator is. Because of the way the condenser is constructed, I found that this was too narrow. I have exchanged it for a 24" X 14" piece. I am going to run the heater hoses through the fire wall near the passenger side inner fender panel. Again, for space considerations, the A.C. lines will have to go out through the inner fender at the suspension adjustment hole, and through the cowl under the front fender.

Any way I could talk you in to sending me some pics when you get all finished up.
 
'64 Polara with a Vintage Air Gen II unit. Original non AC car. Custom dash with narrowed glove box door, and aftermarket instruments to allow for vents.



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I like it! I have actually been eyeballing what you did with your dash for awhile. However, now that I have access to a dash with all the original vents. I have been thinking in it some more. I will probably do something very similar to yours especially with the gauges now I have to do some more thinking on vents and a/c
 
I like it! I have actually been eyeballing what you did with your dash for awhile. However, now that I have access to a dash with all the original vents. I have been thinking in it some more. I will probably do something very similar to yours especially with the gauges now I have to do some more thinking on vents and a/c
Using the dash that has the vents will be much easier.... trust me. ;-)
 
For my '62 I used the factory system inside the car and and updated condenser and rotary compressor with r134 under the hood. It worked great.
 
I had the same deal as you. I came across a '64 parts car that originated in Tennessee up here in Ontario that had factory air and tinted glass. Canadian-built 1964 Dodges were never available with factory air conditioning, so I decided to transfer the system from my parts car to my good one. Long story; short, it never worked very well, and then the heater core failed. Now that I am redoing the car, I tossed the original broken system and am in the process of installing Vintage Air. Since no one makes a complete kit for a '64, I am piecing mine together. It is quite a jigsaw puzzle. There are a couple of threads on this forum about this, and I have received advice and help from members on my project. One of the downfalls of the original system is the vacuum operated control switch. The vacuum nipples on the back of the switch get brittle over time and break off.

You got heat up there? Ha!
 
Sure, I can do that. Some other guys have done that on '62-'65 forum.

Any way I could talk you in to sending me some pics when you get all finished up.
Here are some pictures of my project so far. Vintage Air has kits for newer B-bodies, but not ours. These kits run all the lines outside the inner fender to the firewall. I did not want this, but space for routing the lines inside the engine compartment and through the firewall to the condenser is very limited. All the heater and A/C hookups are concentrated on the right side of the evaporator. I found that I have enough space to route the A/C lines through the firewall using Vintage Air's 2 port A/C bulkhead near the right side of the evaporator. I am going to route the heater hoses across the top of the evaporator to the opposite side where the factory heater hoses came in. I had a few holes on the firewall filled when I had my car painted, including these holes. I am going to use Vintage Air's 2 port heater hose bulkhead with 90 degree fittings inside the car and 45 degree outside. The heater hoses will run from water pump and down driver's side of engine as stock. The A/C lines will be routed down the passenger side inner fender using brackets that routed heater hoses on 1966-1970 B-bodies to the Vintage Air port on lower firewall near inner fender. I found a neat molded hose that turns the flow of heater water around 180 degrees, so I can run it to opposite side of evaporator. Condenser is in place with shortening of brackets. I used 24"X14" condenser. Evaporator is Super Gen 2 heat, cool, defrost.

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I took the whole system out of my 64 Polara and still have most of the parts....I don't know what was missing, but I did not want it.....Still have the switch on the dash too.... Might sell it but shipping would be quite expensive....Live in CT so local, or short driving distance would be best.
 
Any way I could talk you in to sending me some pics when you get all finished up.
Here are some pictures of my A/C project so far. Evaporator, condenser, and compressor are all mounted. I have heater hoses all plumbed to evaporator. I managed to run interior hoses across the top of the evaporator to come through the firewall in the area of the original hoses. The hot water shutoff valve is mounted inline on the incoming heater hose near the cowl. I would have preferred to mount this under the dash, but there was no room.
Sanden compressor mounts to TRW power steering pump bracket with Vintage Air mount kit. This went fairly well. The mount kit also includes another mount for the alternator.. This is a POS Rube Goldberg-looking affair with assorted spacers, bolts, and washers. I preferred to use the factory A/C alternator bracket setup that I already had. This setup incorporates an idler pulley and bracket to run the water pump. I also already had the 4-groove crankshaft pulley and the small water pump pulley. I noticed that Roseville Dodge, north of Detroit, sells a lot of repro parts and sells this A/C bracket set with the idler pulley and bracket. They also have 95A dual groove pulley 2-field alternator on sale for about $150.00.
Everything lines up well. Water pump is run by first (forward) groove of crank pulley through idler pulley. Power steering pump is run by second crank pulley groove. Third groove of crank pulley runs the alternator and A/C compressor on their front grooves. Fourth (rear) groove of crank pulley is empty. Next project is to plumb A/C side.

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