I’ve been working on installing air conditioning in my car (named II Much, see more at www.iimuchfabrication.com) since late summer.  I figure by the time the weather is really cold, I’ll have working A/C.  🙂  

Warning: I’ll be giving lots of kudos to the folks at Vintage Air.  They are not a sponsor on the car, just so you know.  Rick Love has answered all my pestering questions, and has been awesome with his support, suggestions, and information.

Anyway, I’ve just about finished the install, which was a big deal on a finished car.  I had to remove the passenger fender and inner fenderwell, and tear out the entire dash.  Every single part on the install was a custom fit.  

I used Vintage Air’s new LS Front Runner (in anodized black, naturally).  Awesome engineering.  Installation was a snap, once I worked out how to fit my power steering pump in place: I had to use a remote reservoir, which meant I had to drill and tap the pump for the correct 10AN fitting.  I used a Tony Woodward reservoir and NIC fittings.  

The compressor requires a custom manifold to clear the inner fender.  The awesome folks at Vintage Air are building me a custom version based on my prototype.  It had to come out the back of the compressor, then up and over.  They are adding service ports to it as well.  

Installing the evaporator was even more difficult.  My roll cage meant that  I had to remove a lot of sheet metal in the interior (in the passenger side kick panel area). I had to move my FAST ECU and eDIST over and out of the way, and pull my stereo completely out of the car.  I’ll send the car back to 1OffRides (www.1Offrides.com) to have the stereo reinstalled behind the rear seat.  With all that out of the way, I was able to mount the evaporator under the dash to my roll cage tubes with the fan housing sticking inside the lower cowl to the point of almost touching the outer sheet metal.  I had to fab custom hardlines for the heater, and custom A/C bulkhead hose for the refrigerant.  I also had to use hardline for the drain to an AN bulkhead fitting in the lower firewall.

After that, I made my own bulkhead plate to angle the hoses out of the car at a reasonable angle.  From there, custom hardline heater hoses, drilled and tapped water pump, and custom refrigerant hoses.  (next blog): Aeroquip’s new EZClip hose and ends.  Good stuff!

I’m still wiring and working the final details (condenser will be here tomorrow) hopefully it’s a straightforward install.