I will be installing Vintage Air into my 72 non-AC car during it's frame-off.
I intend to fiberglass over the two small upper round vent holes in the firewall that will not be used.
My big Question is about the lower cable-operated floor vents.
Can these still be used with the Vintage Air?
Good idea?
Bad idea?
Anyone have experience with?
TIA

 

I would close them off unless you can get them to seal properly. Also with the VA unit on the pass side that floor vent will "blowing" on the unit not really much else, it's tight in that area with the unit in.

 

Lots of ways to do this. On a couple of VA installs, I elected to cut a couple of circles out of plastic and sealed them with chaulking in the upper vent holes. VA I think provides a cap for sealing these upper vent holes. I would make it reversible and so not fiberglass in case somebody in the future wants to change it back to OEM and remove the VA.

I always kept my cable operated floor vents because I thought it would be good to have fresh air available when needed plus I wanted the console vent ***** to be operational and functional. Keeping the cable vents operational does not interfer with VA other than maybe a fresh air leak.

My view and hope this might help.

 

I kept the floor vents operational when I installed Vintage Air in my '73 non-AC car a few years back. Glad I did. At least for me, the Vintage Air system puts out too much heat in the winter. I need the floor vents to bring in some outside air to cool things down.

My issue is that there doesn't seem to be any temperature control for heat. As soon as I move the controls off of full cold, I get full hot with no in-between. At first I had retrofitted the factory controls to run the Vintage Air system. I ran the calibration procedure several times but it didn't help. I later decided that I didn't really like the way the factory controls worked and ended up buying Vintage Air's 3-**** controller. I mounted it where the factory controls go. That controller works very well and I like it much better than the factory controls but I still have the same problem with heat. Not sure if that's just the way the system works or if the blend door motor isn't working properly. As an FYI for anyone reading this who has Vintage Air and factory controls, the computer has to be reprogrammed if you switch from the factory retrofit controls to their 3-**** controller. I had to pull it and send it to them. They got it back to me very promptly.

I need to troubleshoot this again but don't really want to pull the right side of the dash again anytime soon.

Anyway, I would recommend you keep the floor vents and test the system first before you decided to eliminate them. You can always block them off later if you find you don't need them.

DC

 

I am putting a Vintage Air in my 69 that came without air
I put the two cups over the top two astro ventilation holes
then I ordered and installed new sealing foam on the bigger fresh air vents
What a difference that made.

I then called Vintage Air and they recommended shutting the passenger side
for good and then having the driver side operational

Glenn in San Diego

 

Thanks!
So you can keep fresh air operational with the floor vents and still use the cables/levers?
That's great news.

 

Hi Leigh,

Have you finished this install? I'm curious about leaving that driver's side operational on the vacuum system/cable system in my 70. Is that the route you went?

 

My build is stalled due to health reasons and I have not finished it yet. But several others did and said this worked well.

 

As a followup to my previous post, I never did get the temperature control of the Vintage Air system dialed in well enough. This system really puts out way more heat than I need on cold days and it will also freeze me out on the milder days when I need AC. I continue to be very glad I kept both kick panel area vents operational as bringing in outside air to temper the system has become essential to my comfort. You can always go back later and block the vents if you find you don't need them.

I did disable the astro-ventilation system in the rear and blocked the exhaust vents. I felt like I didn't need it and didn't want any vacuum operation as I was trying to reduce my vacuum use.

DC