[click]

While scraping fuzzies and glue from my floor pan, I pulled the Dr. side kick panel and find there is NO cutout for the venting. Behind it is a steel plate bolted over the vent area. The passenger side has the hole and vacuum operated vent door so it appears to be fine. Am I misssing something here? Should my Dr. side kick panel have a vented opening or not?
Its an original AC car. The slider bars are screwed to both kick panels for the upper vent cables. But only the right kick panel has the slider bar on it to open the kick panel vent for fresh air.
I easily get confused, so this one has me.. anyone ???

 

[Unreal]

The fresh air venting on A/C cars is through the Astro Vents on the left and right side of the dash. The cables control doors that are in these vents. So there is no need for kick panel vents.

 

[1967 Panther]

No 67-69 A/C cars had vents on the left kick panel

 

[MY FIRST 69]

My car is a 69 and has factory air. I only had the vent hole one the pass side of the car. The drivers side had a metal plate bolted where the vent would be.

 

[KevinW]

Jim, that is a required part for A/C car, quite often misplaced. It seals the vent closed so no air gets behind the kick panel. If you are taking the A/C out, remove it and sell it. Then get a vented kick panel. If you are keeping the A/C, keep it installed!

Luck, Kevin

 

[tim]

my car had factory air, but i did away with it. but I am gonna add vintage air later on. do i need a/c kick panels, or can I use standard kick panels.I have both, but what does the top handle do on the standard panels, i know one of them opens the side vent but what does the other one do???

 

[KevinW]

The standard kick panel had two controls, one for the lower vent (bottom) and one for the upper (in the instrument cluster. A/C cars just had one for the upper one. You can still use a vented kick panel with or without A/C. This would give you more flexibility.

Kevin

 

[MY FIRST 69]

thats what I plan on doing. I removed my whole a/c system and was thinking of using a vontage air unit. If I was to do that would I have to block off the vent with a metal plate and use standard panels? Here is a picture of my pass air vent.

http://voltronkru.com/pictures/justin/kick_panel.jpg

Justin

 

[click]

Keeping the A/C for sure. A drive out to Seattle in August might be kinda hot.


Thanks guys, that all makes sense. Will keep things the way they are when I put it all back together again.

 

[KevinW]

Justin, GM used the pass side vent hole to get interior air when the A/C was on max recirculating air. Since that did away with the standard astro ventilation, they took it out of the drivers side to be consistant (I think

) If you are using vintage air and VA may not use the pass vent for max A/C, you might be able to use the standard vents on both sides. Kinda the best of both worlds. But I'm not sure how Vintage Air get the inside air.

Jim, Good Luck on your Project!

Kevin

 

[steve68]

Does anybody know what GM used to seal the panels to the body, it's kind of a gray putty stuff, I'm sure we'll all need it sooner or later, Steve

 

[click]

Im guessing it was dumb dumb that 3M makes. It is at most auto parts stores, comes in a box with strings of it layed side to side over wax paper. I used it to seal around my A/C unit at the firewall. Neat stuff. I learned about it in this site. What a source of info. and time saving ideas.

 

[Unreal]

The stuff GM used is different than Strip Caulk that we all call Dum-Dum. I'm not sure what the difference is, but I plan to use Dum-Dum.

Hidaway, if you elect to use your standard kick panels, remember that A/C kick panels in good condition are worth about $100.

 

[MY FIRST 69]

really! 100 bucks! I have the whole stock a/c system in my garage that I need to sell! thats kick panels, compresser, evap, heater box, brackets, hoses, dryer, condenser, a/c radiator, and the list goes on!

Justin

 

[Unreal]

There's a complete small block set-up on ebay right now. No pics, but the description says all brackets, pulleys, wiring etc. It was either starting bid $500, or "Buy it Now, $500. I can't remember.

 

[MY FIRST 69]

sounds good to me. I just have to find a way to ship all the parts! the compressor alone weighs about 30 pounds.