[Brian Lewis]

I have a 69 Camaro that came with Factory AC but has it no more, previous owner removed the stuff. I would like to see pictures of this passenger side firewall area if anyone has any so I can see what needs to be done if I go either with a Heater Box only and maybe fabricate to fit the AC firewall or go with the HeaterBox/ACBox system and cut it to shorten.
It looks like for $100 I can get a new AC box, but I don't believe that includes the Heater Box too, and I can't seem to find a Heater Box that is designed for a car that had AC! Any what is the true difference between a Small block and Big Block AC evap box? Any help would be appreciated, here is my under hood


[ 01-14-2004, 11:46 AM: Message edited by: Brian Lewis ]

[click]

Brian, you have mail.
[img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

[KWIK 69]

The hole in the firewall is different on the A/C car and the non A/C car, along with the wiring, the ductwork, kick panels and more.... I just went thru the process of deleting the remnants of my a/c.
If I was in your shoes, I'de buy the firewall smoothing piece of sheetmetal from Detroit Speed and Engineering (detroitspeed.com I think). It looks pretty sharp and only costs about $65 if I remember right.
Then if you NEED heat and air conditioning, there's the Vintage Air unit that fits the ENTIRE unit under the dash board, that way you have heat AND air AND a smooth firewall.
All my a/c stuff was gone 'cept the evap core & housing, so I chopped the top on the core and glassed it over to free up engine space and to make it look a little better. I'll post a pic when I get home.
Eventually when I get the cash, or when the wife gets tired of a non-a/c car, I'll go with the vintage air unit and at that time, I'll remove the remaining pieces out of the engine compartment.
Does your heater have a fan?

[KWIK 69]

Here's a pic of my chopped box glassed over. The picture is upside-down from how it hangs on the firewall, so you're actually looking at the top. You need to retain those 2 factory holes you see.
If you've memorized the shape of your evap box, you'll also notice in the upper left edge of the picture, I shaved off the corner of the box, too. This is the portion of the box that is REALLY close to my passenger side header, so now this will give me a little more room.


[ 05-14-2003, 08:38 AM: Message edited by: KWIK 69 ]

[Mark C]

That looks great, [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img] it's professional quality looking work. Let's see some pictures when you get it mounted on the firewall.

[1967 Panther]

Kwik, the guys car is set up for factory A/C.

[KWIK 69]

Thanx Mark C, I couldn't have done it without the tips from you & others here on the board!

1967 Panther: Yes, looks like he has the same remnants of an a/c system as I did, except I had a broken evap core housing I was able to re-use.

Brian Lewis: The a/c evap core housing on the A/C car acts as the heater core box when the a/c is not in use. The heater box from a non-a/c car will not cover the taller hole found on the a/c car's firewall, therefore the most inexpensive way to keep the heat and defrost functions and still have a multiple speed blower motor fan, is to "chop" all but the bottom 3 1/2 to 4" off of an old evaporator core housing, which ALSO houses the fan blower motor as you can see in the above picture.