Boy, go away for a couple of weeks and the stuff piles up, took almost 4 hours to read most of the forums, good thing its raining the lawn needs rakeing, garage has to be cleaned out, and it is finaly warm enough to go Camaro-ing.
Any ways did the Chevy Chase vacation thing, went to Orlando, Rich, thanks for recomending that we check out Cruise night at Old Town, Not only did 300 plus cars show up that night, they actualy drive down the street.
This is a great way to have cruise night, you get to see the cars up close befor hand later you get to hear them, smell them, ahhha and even some of the big blocks you even get to feel them!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh and my original ???? Has any one retrofitted thier 1st Gen Camaro to use R-134 instead of the R-12.
How does it work? Share your trial and error.

i used the Vintage Air kit in my '68. works "Awesome"

CJ, did you have air before. I'm considering installing the VA kit myself but am wondering if anyone else has done it to a car which did not have air before. I'm concerned about cutting holes in my dash for the A/C vents. Has anyone done this and how did it work.

rob
I converted my el camino last summer. Its probably the same or near the same system. It works fine with 134. I did a couple things because i want it to last.
1- cleaned evaporator & condensor & lines with alcohol and compressed air. Replaced dryer - necessary when lines were opened. Repalced POA valve and expansion valve - just cause they were 25 years old. Replaced all "O-rings. I did not change the hoses. Drained oil from compressor. Repalced with the 134 stuff. Again Works Good!

rick - call vitage air. Several years ago when I talked to them, they did NOT have retro systems for factory air vehicles. They were only for Non-air cars and they are made to fit. NO HACKING of your dash. A friend has one in his chevelle & is tickled pink. I think that their web site is www.vintageair.com (http://www.vintageair.com) .

The link works. Look for the "sure fit" section of their site, the camaro/firebird are there.
------------------
Rick Schaefer
72 El Camino
TPI 350/700r4
68 Camaro

[This message has been edited by rick (edited 05-01-2000).]

I installed the VA system in my '69 - originally a factory air car. It fit fine with only a few hassles. I understand they also have a system for the non-factory air cars that does not require any cutting??


------------------
Scott
'69 400SB, Richmond 5-speed; '99 HD Road King Classic
www.geocities.com/sdenning1 (http://www.geocities.com/sdenning1)

Do they have kits for short water pumps? I want to keep my current configuration if at all possible. My car does not have A/C.

------------------
68 RS Ash Gold

Sorry to get off of Rob's original topic, but I am a little confused about the VA kit. The ones I saw in past years had non-original appearing vent balls. They were cheap looking and looked like add ons. The picture on their website showed a 68 model which is no help because of the vent system installed in the 68's. Do they now use the original vent balls with their kits now for us with the 67 Camaros?

------------------
Jeff Bradway - my resto page: http://67camaro.virtualave.net

I don't know about '67s specifically but on my '69 the original vents were used. VA just supplied ducting to connect to the backside of the vent. Mine were trashed so I bought new ones first.

------------------
Scott
'69 400SB, Richmond 5-speed; '99 HD Road King Classic
www.geocities.com/sdenning1 (http://www.geocities.com/sdenning1)

MY CAR DID'NT HAVE FACTORY AIR,BUT I BOUGHT THE FACTORY CENTER VENT FROM STEVE'S CAMAROS IN SAN BRUNO CA. WITH THE FACTORY DUCTS. I JUST RE-USED MY LOWER SIDE VENTS FOR MY '68. IT LOOKS FACTORY INSIDE AND THE INSTALL UNDER THE HOOD IS REAL CLEAN TOO. VA SUPPLIES THEIR VENT PACKAGE WITH THEIR KITS. I JUST OPTED FOR THE FACTORY LOOK.

Do the controls just attach to the existing heater fan switch and hot/cold selector on the non-air cars?

I just put a VA system in my 67, which didnt come with air. Yes, VA's vents look cheesy. I bought some reproductions of the original side and center vents, and some used duct work. I want it to look original, even if it's not.
By the way, the system works great. I live in Florida and it's already hot here.

Thanks convertiblers, thats the impression I had of the kit last year. Seems relatively easy and well worth it to make the adjustments you talked about. I just couldn't tell from the pictures since they always seem to show a 68 with the Astro Vents already in place.

------------------
Jeff Bradway - my resto page: http://67camaro.virtualave.net

ConvertableRS, did you have to cut the dash to install the astro side vents in you non A/C car to install the VA system.

Ok Guys,

I just got through installing a Vintage Air AC "surefit" system (cost as I described here was 1,050.00 dollars for the kit) into my 69 big block camaro that DID NOT originally have AC. The air temperature on this 134A unit is 35 Degrees AWESOME!!! You can get R12 also if you want but they strongly advise against it. The kit comes with it's own center air vent BUT I used a OEM center vent so that you couldn't tell from inside the car that the car didn't come originally with AC. If you go this route, they have an adapter that fits on back of the factory center vent so that you can attach it to unit in the same manner that you would if you used their center AC vent.

When you order the kit, you can specify a polished compressor (which I did) or a standard finsih compressor. You also indicate whether or not your car came ORIGINALLY with AC. If if didn't, then they send you a kit that will work with your standard heater control assembly switch. Their standard set up puts the compressor on the driver's side BUT I wanted to put mine on the passenger side to make room for a blower on the driver's side (if I choose to install one later). Since their kit has all the hoses precrimped if you are going to install it on the Driver's side, they sent me my hoses UMTERMINATED so that I could cut them to length as I was installing them on the passenger side.

Their are a couple of slick things with this kit. One, the installation makes for a very clean firewall since the evaporator is underneath the dash and not on the engine side of the firewall. Two, the heater defroster works MUCH better than the stock setup. Three, when I engage the compressor the RPM drops only around 150RPM. I was concerned about this because I am running a fairly big cam and DID NOT want to use a Idle solenoid (this tells me the compressor is very efficient and doesn't pull nearly the amount of power that the stock Harrison units required.)

Their was only one gotcha so far ant that had to do with the location of the wiper washer bottle. Since I have a RS the washer bootle is NORMALLY on the passenger side inner wheelwell. The compressor blocks off this area so I moved the wiper washer bottle to a location on the passenger side of the firewall directly above where the hoses go through for the evaporator and heater core. The benefit to this is that it hides hose entry point.

I will say that this installation was a BIG job. It took about 16 hours and requires the removal of the passenger fender. I was doing this anyway so It wasn't that big a deal. The real test will be to see how it does on this year's Hot Rod Power Tour in the desert!!

CA420,

I run a short water pump on my 396 and use a "68" alternator bracket because I wanted the alt. to be on the driver's side of car instead of it's original passenger side.

RickB1B,

As mentioned above, my car DID NOT come with AC orginally.

Rocky,

The area for the center AC vent on my dash was already opened so no cutting was necessary. I of course had to replace my non-air dash pad with a AC dash pad. I also paited the OEM center AC vent RED to match my dash (it comes black only).

Dan A

Yes. I use heater controls to control AC.


[This message has been edited by sr71bb (edited 05-04-2000).]

Rick,

Yes, I did cut the dash to install the side vents. It was painful, but it was either that or install one of their under-dash systems, which I think looks bad. At least this way, you can't tell from inside the car that the AC isn't original.

Hey SR71bb!!!!!!!! If you are long hauling on the Power Tour, I will be there and would like to check out your car.

------------------
68 RS Ash Gold

Hey CA420,

I not sure whether I'm long hauling or not. One option would be to join up as they go through OK and the rest of the way to FL. I am trying to decide on that now.

[This message has been edited by sr71bb (edited 05-04-2000).]

ConvertableRS, what did you use to cut the dash and how did you locate the holes.

I used a drill and a long-bladed hand saw (not sure the name of it). I slowly carved out a larger and larger circle until the vents fit. I did this by eyeballing it -- the bottom lip of the astro-vents must wrap under the dash to get a perfect fit. It was tedious, but it worked.

Wow, I was afraid of that. I've had to use a die grinder for this kind of work in the past. Looks like I might be doing it again. Thanks for the info.