best A/C conversion for 65 Coronet with 440

[shawn880]

Hello all! Ive searched for a while now wanting to add A/C to my 65 Coronet that was initially heat only. The heater box I have is too far gone and it would be nice to have A/C. Any suggestions as to which brand/part# to go with as it seems all kits start for a 66? I believe I'm in the "universal" category and was asking for recommendations from someone that has added it already.

thank you,
Shawn

 

[Gus chiggins]

Hello all! Ive searched for a while now wanting to add A/C to my 65 Coronet that was initially heat only. The heater box I have is too far gone and it would be nice to have A/C. Any suggestions as to which brand/part# to go with as it seems all kits start for a 66? I believe I'm in the "universal" category and was asking for recommendations from someone that has added it already.

thank you,
Shawn

Talk to Josh Santos at Vintage Air.

 

[Dave6T4]

I installed Vintage Air in my 1964 Dodge Polara, which is pretty much like your Coronet. Like you said, nobody makes a kit for the early B-body. I don't like how the hoses are routed in the kit, out through the inner fender access hole and over the front passenger tire. I went through their catalogue an kind of noodled up the parts I needed.I worked with their distributor here in Ontario, Horton's Hot Rods, and got everything I needed. I have everything installed, but have not charged it up yet. That will be a job for next spring. The way I installed it, I kept all the hoses inside the engine compartment for more of a factory look. I posted a lot of pictures and comments about what I was doing on the 64's only thread. If you are serious about doing this, PM me, and I can come up with a list of the parts I bought.
Go to HOME page, and click on Search Forums. When the Search page comes up, type in Vintage Air. When it asks whose post, type in Dave6T4. It will ask what forum, and type in '62-'65 b-body, and you will find my posts on my installation.
Dave

 

[OldGuyGTX]

Talk to Josh Santos at Vintage Air.

Thank you for the heads-up, 69 GTX for me, and we're still using a/c here in Southern Arizona.

 

[808 Sport Fury]

I installed Vintage Air in my 1964 Dodge Polara, which is pretty much like your Coronet. Like you said, nobody makes a kit for the early B-body. I don't like how the hoses are routed in the kit, out through the inner fender access hole and over the front passenger tire. I went through their catalogue an kind of noodled up the parts I needed.I worked with their distributor here in Ontario, Horton's Hot Rods, and got everything I needed. I have everything installed, but have not charged it up yet. That will be a job for next spring. The way I installed it, I kept all the hoses inside the engine compartment for more of a factory look. I posted a lot of pictures and comments about what I was doing on the 64's only thread. If you are serious about doing this, PM me, and I can come up with a list of the parts I bought.
Go to HOME page, and click on Search Forums. When the Search page comes up, type in Vintage Air. When it asks whose post, type in Dave6T4. It will ask what forum, and type in '62-'65 b-body, and you will find my posts on my installation.
Dave
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I noticed you have a double pulley on compressor and alternator, but rest of them all single grove. How will you route your belts?

 

[Dave6T4]

My engine previously had A/C on it with Chrysler's big V-2 compressor on it. So, this gave me a 4 groove pulley on he crankshaft and the special brackets for the alternator needed for A/C setup. Also special pulley and tensioner pulley for the water pump.
The belts on the 2 rear grooves on the crank pulley are meant to run the A/C compressor and alternator. The newer rotary compressor should not be as hard to drive as the original one, so I am going to try running it with just one belt, leaving the rearmost groove empty. The belt on the next groove runs the power steering pump only. The belt on the front groove runs over a tensioner pulley to drive the water pump.
If you have a shop manual, it has some good pictures of belt routing.

 

[808 Sport Fury]

How big is that box under the dash, I can’t find measurements on vintage air website? What made you pick them over other companies? Like Auto AC solutions?

 

[Dave6T4]

If you go on Vintage Air website, they have a page that gives measurements of various boxes. One deciding factor is that VA has dealer here in Ontario (Horton's Hot Rods). Paul was very good to deal with.

 

[TorRed]

Like others have already mentioned, I didn't care for Vintage Air's routing of the A/C hoses into the passenger side fender well. There were other considerations on how each vendor's kit integrated with my specific car (1970 Roadrunner) so I went with Classic Air. Since mine like yours didn't come with A/C I went with their non-A/C kit, but have since found a dash frame and vents for an A/C car so I'll be mixing parts from both A/C and non-A/C kits to get one that looks original in the interior. I've heard good things about both systems so you probably can't go wrong.

Later,
Jim

 

[EARLY B]

 

[EARLY B]

 

[EARLY B]

 

[Dave6T4]

Like others have already mentioned, I didn't care for Vintage Air's routing of the A/C hoses into the passenger side fender well. There were other considerations on how each vendor's kit integrated with my specific car (1970 Roadrunner) so I went with Classic Air. Since mine like yours didn't come with A/C I went with their non-A/C kit, but have since found a dash frame and vents for an A/C car so I'll be mixing parts from both A/C and non-A/C kits to get one that looks original in the interior. I've heard good things about both systems so you probably can't go wrong.

Later,
Jim

I used Vintage Air setup on my '64 Polara, which under the hood, is identical to your car. Like you, I did not care for their routing of A/C lines and heater hoses. I came up with a way of routing all the hoses within the engine compartment, where they belong. A couple of years ago, I posted pictures and explanations of what I had to do. I think it is under " '62-'65 B-body " forum. Then look up Aftermarket A/C. Since no one makes a kit for our early B-bodies, I had to noodle out what I needed. Please look my posts over, and if you decide to go a similar route, I can PM you a parts list of what I used. Happy to help.