C3 Aftermarket A/C
Burning Brakes
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 948
Likes: 1
From: pensacola fl
Vintage Air has a kit for most everything. The one went into my 76 with little trouble.I would also suggest using their Sanden compressor as well as their electric fan kit mounted in front of the condenser. The fan will allow cool air to blow when car is stopped or moving at slow speeds. Good Luck.
Oh by the war, if you are fairly handy with tools, you can do it in a couple weekends or less.
Oh by the war, if you are fairly handy with tools, you can do it in a couple weekends or less.
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Apr 2012
Posts: 340
Likes: 37
From: Plymouth, Ma
Vintage Air has a kit for most everything. The one went into my 76 with little trouble.I would also suggest using their Sanden compressor as well as their electric fan kit mounted in front of the condenser. The fan will allow cool air to blow when car is stopped or moving at slow speeds. Good Luck.
Oh by the war, if you are fairly handy with tools, you can do it in a couple weekends or less.
Oh by the war, if you are fairly handy with tools, you can do it in a couple weekends or less.
Bob
Melting Slicks
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 2,655
Likes: 19
I've installed both Vintage Air (68 corvette) and Classic Auto Air. On my 72 442 I went with Classic Auto Air universal kit, partially because Vintage Air had not put out their Olds kit yet. Looking at the online instructions, their corvette kit is very similar to the corvette kit.
The Vintage air is a pretty hi tech unit. It uses computers to interpret the control positions, heater control valve is electric rather than vacuum, stepper motors control the air doors, even the fan speed is controlled by pulse width modulation rather than the old resistor pack.
I've had 3 issues with the VA unit in 5 years. The heater control valve stuck and had to be replaced. The fan speed control occasionally doesn't stay on high (not yet resolved). The controls had to be recalibrated for proper air door operation. I almost had to remove the computer and send it back for this (terrifying on a 68 corvette)
The Classic Auto Air is infinitely more simple, which is why I chose it for a custom install requiring modifications. Both the heat and air doors are controlled by cables. The unit is slightly smaller than the VA. The one drawback is that there is no separation between the floor heat ports and defrost ports. It was VERY easy to modify the Olds controls to operate the heat and air door controls (not sure why they never came out with an Olds kit, as simple as it was). Due to it's simplicity, it was easy to make mods that fit what I want. I drove all summer in 100 degree heat and it worked great! The classic Auto kit was a couple hundred dollars cheaper too.
Both companies were great to work with. I had a lot of mods (both were LSx swaps) and both companies worked with me and took a lot of tech calls.
The Vintage air is a pretty hi tech unit. It uses computers to interpret the control positions, heater control valve is electric rather than vacuum, stepper motors control the air doors, even the fan speed is controlled by pulse width modulation rather than the old resistor pack.
I've had 3 issues with the VA unit in 5 years. The heater control valve stuck and had to be replaced. The fan speed control occasionally doesn't stay on high (not yet resolved). The controls had to be recalibrated for proper air door operation. I almost had to remove the computer and send it back for this (terrifying on a 68 corvette)
The Classic Auto Air is infinitely more simple, which is why I chose it for a custom install requiring modifications. Both the heat and air doors are controlled by cables. The unit is slightly smaller than the VA. The one drawback is that there is no separation between the floor heat ports and defrost ports. It was VERY easy to modify the Olds controls to operate the heat and air door controls (not sure why they never came out with an Olds kit, as simple as it was). Due to it's simplicity, it was easy to make mods that fit what I want. I drove all summer in 100 degree heat and it worked great! The classic Auto kit was a couple hundred dollars cheaper too.
Both companies were great to work with. I had a lot of mods (both were LSx swaps) and both companies worked with me and took a lot of tech calls.
