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No progress to speak of. I got a new job that keeps me away from home and my projects. I did speak to Vintage Air this week and I think I will drop the hammer on the Gen II Super. I need to get the front seat to the upholstery shop and the driver's cushion replaced, and a whole bunch of little stuff. I'll post up pics as it progresses.
I was up in Pike County PA yesterday, Dingmans Ferry area. Boy, oh boy, did that place get WACKED ! Downed trees EVERYWHERE, and the road crews got all the roads back opened again from those crossed trees on the roadways.
No progress to speak of. I got a new job that keeps me away from home and my projects. I did speak to Vintage Air this week and I think I will drop the hammer on the Gen II Super. I need to get the front seat to the upholstery shop and the driver's cushion replaced, and a whole bunch of little stuff. I'll post up pics as it progresses.
Congrats on the new job! I will recommend the Vintage Air, even though I haven’t seen it, solely based on company reputation. I am NOT happy with the Old Air Products Hurricane! Output isn’t very high. It takes the chill off, but I’m not getting toasty. I was expecting to run the heat with the fan on a medium setting, after it warms up. Well, it’s on HIGH all the time. When I kill the fan, it sounds like it has a plastic bushing on the fan motor instead of a bearing (maybe it actually has a cheap bearing, I’m not sure). Ever have an old shop vac, that makes a dry/worn bearing noise when you turn it off? That’s what I’ve got. And the fan is VERY loud on the high setting, as well. More on the negative side: I have the rectangle air vents in the stock location, which is where the dash angles down about 10-15 degrees, on the highest steel section of the dash, just below the plastic glovebox and dash cap. Because of this angle, even with the vent pointed all the way up, the air will only blow out straight. From the drivers seat, the vent to the left of the steering wheel can blow on the top of my thigh, but not towards my arm, window or chest. The center vents are tolerable though. If I didn’t have a factory AC truck which already had rectangle vents, I would run the round “ball” style vent, like 60’s GM cars had. I’ll take a few pics to show how the vent blows against the top of itself, only allowing it to blow straight out instead of up. Pointing them down is fine. It’s not really the vent’s fault, it’s just the angle of the dash, with this style of vent, that is the issue. Not to be whiny about it, but giving my opinion and some free knowledge so you’ll know what to expect/stay away from.
Still have wiring to tidy up. I’m building a center console to mount the speakers into, as well as switches for power windows and locks in the future. Air flow hits the top of the inside of the vent, then bounces off of itself to only allow it to blow straight or down.
I made a custom bracket out of some scrap aluminum. This allowed me to screw the 2 center vents together. The original 73 Dodge setup was similar, with 2 vents cast together. I didn’t want to hack the dash too much, in order to retain an original look.
On the spot, driveway engineering
As far as mounting the HVAC unit itself, it’s all in the instructions. You’ll have to make your own firewall block off plate. I’d recommend using 16g-14g steel. Hold the box up where you like, mark the holes, drill and mount. Mine came prewired, all I needed to do was mount the switches, snap the master plugs together, hook up a hot, and a ground. Even a dummy like me was able to do it.
I was up in Pike County PA yesterday, Dingmans Ferry area.
Beautiful country. Looking at homes up there.
That is gorgeous country.
Originally Posted by 73CrewCab
Congrats on the new job! I will recommend the Vintage Air, even though I haven’t seen it, solely based on company reputation. I am NOT happy with the Old Air Products Hurricane!
The center vents are tolerable though. If I didn’t have a factory AC truck which already had rectangle vents, I would run the round “ball” style vent, like 60’s GM cars had. I’ll take a few pics to show how the vent blows against the top of itself, only allowing it to blow straight out instead of up. Pointing them down is fine. It’s not really the vent’s fault, it’s just the angle of the dash, with this style of vent, that is the issue. Not to be whiny about it, but giving my opinion and some free knowledge so you’ll know what to expect/stay away from.
That's good to know.
I've been impressed with Vintage Air for years. They seem like they make there products work well and installation seems easy enough. I want a heat/cool/defrost stand alone unit and the Gen II Super seems to fit the bill. The issue will be squeezing a condenser behind the '74 grill. The truck is a non AC cab, so I plan to get the under the dash vents or a combination of them.
I've been impressed with Vintage Air for years. They seem like they make there products work well and installation seems easy enough. I want a heat/cool/defrost stand alone unit and the Gen II Super seems to fit the bill. The issue will be squeezing a condenser behind the '74 grill. The truck is a non AC cab, so I plan to get the under the dash vents or a combination of them.
I believe that the Gen IV stuff also has floor vents available. That’s what I really wanted, but I decided to save a few bucks.
PERFORMANCE, CHEAP, RELIABLE.... you can only pick 2 out of 3.
You can bend the lower valance and the bottom of the grill to gain 1/4” - 3/8” for a little clearance, without cutting anything. Most of the condensers seems to be 1” thick, so it will be tight. I cut my valance up, but I managed to find a spare at the boneyard, along with a cherry bird bath hood to swap out for my rusty floppy hood.
Today, took a ride up to east stroudsburg to see where a neighbor of ours moved to. They bought a 5 acre lot, 2700 sq ft home with out buildings, for $265,000, after selling their home a block away for $437,000. The house is at the end of a horrible road, and you can't see it, unless you drive on their property.
Took a few back roads up to promised land state park, then backtracked off 84 to lords valley for fuel and dunkin dogsnot.
Crazy beautiful, but not a whole lot up there but trees, and the occasional private housing developments full of small cabins. Wife hates these private colonies, and the lack of anything out there, or so, shes decided recently. Nice to visit, too desolate to live in. The search continues.
I'll be watching the Vintage air upgrade. If I ever find NOS bed seals for my hard top, it will need a/c. It's originally a factory a/c truck and I still have the condenser up front and sealed.
I spent 30 mins on the phone with a sales rep from vintage air. Absolutely no help. He had no clue what my build consisted of, even after I explained it to him more than I should have, and provided Sanden part numbers for the compressor. If I knew what I needed to build my HVAC system, I would order all the parts through summit racing and not deal directly with Vintage Air I am completely unimpressed with the tech knowledge of Vintage Air. Maybe if you are putting a throw away 350 v8 in a model A ford you'll have better luck.
I had some time lately to gather a bunch of fun parts for this build. I got a HX35 with a boat load of 24V parts I acquired. It had the wrong exhaust housing adapter, but I got one of those and a gasket from EKG Diesel, and a 4 inch Diamond Eye downpipe from Summit and a new pyro sender for my Isspro gauge from Geno's, and finally a Denny T stage 2 pin. Install went as smooth as it could have. And now this thing is faster than it should be.
You’re going to love this truck for a long time. After holding over an 18k GVW, pulling grades and watching the big rigs get smaller and smaller in my mirror, I can absolutely say, these 12 valve motors are the 8th wonder of the world. Progress looks good! Keep up the good work!
