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I have a 69 convertible and pulled the factory unit several years ago and replaced it with a Vintage Air system. I did keep all the original parts incase I sell the car at some point to a purist. I would not hesitate at all to pull the AC, just keep the parts and if you decide you need AC at some point install a Vintage Air.
If you decide to remove it, do as mentioned above: remove only the components that add the "clutter", but save everything for the next owner....he/she [or you, later on] may want to get the A/C working again. It would be a lot easier to do that with all the needed parts in-hand.
I live in the desert, I would never remove the A/C. My '79 has all the A/C in place but no belt and I think no refrigerant. I want to get it working again soon but I think I need to pull it apart to replace the seals in order to properly convert to R134a. It'll get done eventually.
I've lived without a heater for a few years on this car, and the vent control system is totally messed up, so I've considered figuring out how to force the air vents to stay on the middle vents (not the defroster) and just use some basic switches to control the blower motor and A/C compressor. I'll never really need the heater or defroster.
Last edited by AboveTheLogic; Jul 10, 2015 at 01:02 AM.
I love my A/C... And I think it can look nice in there, I painted mine black with a thick red stripe down the middle... to match the rest of the theme....
I'd say that more likely you will regret removing it in the future especially if you want to sell the car. I personally never understood why anyone would remove it as it adds around $1500 in value to any C3. Even if you live in the North Pole, someone in FL may want to buy the car.
Last edited by Jud Chapin; Jul 10, 2015 at 07:42 AM.
I guess it depends on your climate and money situation. I live in San Antonio Texas, here it gets HOT and HUMID, I did remove the compressor and condenser but only because they don't work and would take way too much to fix. As I said in another post I will replace with a Vintage air system when I can come up with the cash but for now I drive it and put up with the heat/humidity
I have a 77 4 spd L48 car. Its a driver. Its in no way a show car. I am installing Hooker side headers and black side pipes on it. I want to clean up the engine compartment and I am considering removing the factory AC. I am also going to replace the factory air cleaner with an open element chrome one and replace the blue valve covers with a nice set of aluminum or chrome covers. I want it to look like a 70's hot rod under the hood. Is removing the AC a good move? I can't see myself ever using AC (or heat for that matter) because this is a cruise night car. I don't want to kill the value of the car by removing the AC compressor.
Toss it!! If you're like me I pretty much only use the car with the Tops off so the AC is useless anyway. Buy the AC delete cover and re install the blower motor for defrost. Gravy!
I love my A/C... And I think it can look nice in there, I painted mine black with a thick red stripe down the middle... to match the rest of the theme....
pauldana, not to hijack the thread, where did you get that cold air cleaner set-up? Moose
From: Graceland in a Not Correctly Restored Stingray
FWIW even the LeMans GTE-Pro class winning C7.R has an air conditioning system. So, I'm not sure I can make a valid argument against having one on my shark, however much I might wish to be burning up the Nordschleife. Besides, my current goals don't revolve around having a dedicated trackday car (BTDT+), rather a potent GT worthy of tracking. That said, if/when I do put my A/C back together I definitely plan on using lighter kit.
Bottom Line: Who cares whether the odd casual observer might deduct a couple of cool-factor points for you actually being, well, cool?
I've got nothing against having AC in mine, hell I REALLY wish I had it!!! I even used to run my AC in my Jeep Rubicon while I was out 4 wheeling, got a lot of crap for that. I just had to weigh the cost benefit and cost won out.
Vintage air goes a long was toward cleaning up the firewall!
Not to mention clearing our all the vacuum nightmare for the original unit, loosing 200 lbs of weight, and having a completely new and much higher efficiency HVAC system that really works better than the factory unit at its best.
Air Conditioning is for wussies. Corvettes are for real men.....so rip out the A/C and enjoy the ride the way nature intended. Hot, noisy and fast!
I tore out all my factory A/C and I have tons of room now to work on the engine. I can pull my headers off in less than 15 minutes.
If you want to cruise around like a little girly-man, keep the A/C...but the only way you will truly experience Corvette nirvana is with your t-tops off, wind ripping thru the car and nothing but engine noise and heat filling the cabin!
Pulled the AC and rear glass out of my 77 and put in a pop out rear window from a chrome bumper car. It's not AC ....but surprisingly it's very comfortable even in the hot temps with the windows down and the rear glass out.
Then re glassed back half the hole in the firewall and in its place went a heater box from a non AC car. Rewired to not be on all the time as original, but only when needed. Very happy with it.
I removed it from my 71 as the hoses were braking from the compressor due to vibration. And the compressor weighs a ton so you must gain quite some horses if you remove it.
I didn't remove the evaporator as I could get to it. (I gave up to soon on the firewall bolt).
I did save everything for later though if I might change my mind.
