The Do's and Probably Don'ts of Air Conditioning Your Classic...

Welcome! We've got some much to talk about today starting with hoses. I make all my A/C hoses with Parker Futura barrier hose - This stuff works great and I've never had an issue with it leaking. It also works good for retrofitting into old R12 systems when a replacement hose is needed. While not as common as the 6an, 8an,10an o-ring type fittings you can find the older style flare fittings through Vintage Air and Classic Auto Air or just through eBay/google.

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The next part of you build should be the condenser selection. I like to size them so installation won't be a complete mess AND as big as you can reasonably fit. Remember to include/plan your hoses/fittings into you measurements because sometimes they are hard to fit. I prefer the un-coated A/C condensers, especially if you are space limited with your installation for the best air conditioning performance. I always thought it was weird to powder coat something that needs to exchange heat.

To mount the AC condenser I like to use saddle brackets on the bottom. Similar to how a lot of older Fords/Chevys mount their radiators from the factory. For the top brackets I decided to 3D print some mounting brackets! I'm using PETG and 100% infill - this is the hottest area under hood I've ever installed printed parts so I'm curious long term what happens. I used a Creality Ender 3 Pro with a design I made in Tinkercad. I'm using Sunlu PETG filament so we will see what kind of abuse it can take.

Now we get to the controversial topic of the decade... Real Sanden VS. Knockoff eBay, Chinese, Amazon, Chinesium alloy, fake compressors. While I've installed dozens of these systems over the years and have had some failures. I personally feel it was because I used to believe the manufacturers "filled with oil, ready to run" claims. I've had more headaches and disappointment with actual Sanden built compressors. They work great as compressors, aka making pressure go big boi - but the way they bog down the engine... It basically requires a high idle solenoid on a carb car or tune adjust (ac request) on LS swaps. It just wasn't worth the headache or the extra money spent. I've had great luck with Sanden style 508 compressors from Yogi's Inc - they are good people, responsive to emails and I've never had a compressor failure from them. They also sell real Sanden compressors if that floats your goat.

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How much oil do you need in your vintage air system? I always go with 7.2 ounces of PAG 100 with dye on new systems or Ester oil on R124 retrofits if some of the original parts are being re-used. If it's a retrofit, I replace the amount of oil with what I took out of the old compressor, this keeps the oil capacity the same. Be careful re-using tube and fin condensers on modern refrigerants. Unless it’s a pretty big condenser a parallel flow style will usually be superior in its ability to shed heat. Also remember the interior size of the car makes a difference, a land yacht like our old 1963 Buick Riviera needs to condition more space then a C10 cab.

And that's pretty much it - we now have ice cold AC for the hot summer months and really wasn't that difficult! So get out there, mess something up and make me proud! Hope you enjoyed my tips and tricks.

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