So my question is fairly yes or no. Can I put a B body AC heater/evaporator box into my '68 C body? The main reason I am asking is that it seems several companies (like classic auto air) make retrofit ac systems for non-ac cars, but I have not seen one for a cbody yet. Just curious if there are many significant differences under the dash of the 2 cars.

I don't think a B-body unit would work in that vintage C-body.

I wish that were the case, but I've seen some listed on EBay that supposedly fit C-body cars, but are for B-body.

Vintage Air makes universal Heat/Defrost/A/C units.

http://www.vintageair.com/2012catalog/2012%20VintageAir%20Catalog%20Final%20WEB%20(Page%2042).pdf

http://www.vintageair.com/2012catalog/2012%20VintageAir%20Catalog%20Final%20WEB%20(Page%2040).pdf

They also reproduce the MK IV under dash A/C unit that would have likely been installed in 68 on a non A/C car.

http://www.vintageair.com/2012catalog/2012%20VintageAir%20Catalog%20Final%20WEB%20(Page%2048).pdf

I ordered the MK IV in Carlisle for our 65 C-body wagon. 20,000+ BTU should help keep that long roof cool. I didn't feel that the in-dash units had enough A/C capacity or I would have gone with one of the above units.

And to answer your question I would be very surprised if a B-body box will fit as in bolt in to a C-body. From what I understand the firewalls are different for A/C and non A/C cars so it wouldn't even fit a non A/C B without modification.

All that being said if you already have a B box in stock, shove it up in there and see what needs to be done to make it work. (I'm thinking a lot )


Kevin

Can't be the same. The cars are entirely different.
In my parts stack I have the main part of a '73 Newport A/C setup but I'm 600 miles away from it. IIRC it is really long like 24" and 8" from top to bottom, bolts up to what must be a big hole in the firewall.

R.

so vintage and classic are not exactly replacing the box with a b-body specfic box.

They basically have a box they setup to "fit" in the same space.
they don't poke out past the firewall like an original box, so they have a lot of leeway on how to mount it up.

If you are just looking for aftermarket a/c, you can still do it, but you will have to do some minor fab for it to work.

for instance, when I did my retro fit with classic, they did not make one for the early b bodies.

so I purchased their universal kit for hot rods.
I gave them my grill opening size and they figured out the biggest condensor I could fit in the opening.

I then decided on the electronic box instead of the vacuum operated box. It used 3 knobs instead of the original heater switches.
was a cleaner install because I wasn't trying to get any of the old stuff to work.

It has been 5 years I guess, and the only problem I have had is with the heater valve. it doesn't move when the valve is bottomed out open or closed, but can do it when it is in the half way position.

Anyway, to get that to fit, I made a plate that had bolts sticking through that matched the firewall mounting holes for the original heater core. had feets weld the bolts in place.
then bolted their box to that plate.
no new cutting except for the a/c lines. BUT you could get one of their cover plates for the ebodies and run your lines through the big hole for the blower motor instead.

I did mount it a bit high, so couldn't get the defrost vent hoses hooked up, but not really a big deal.

you get lines cut and crimped local by a hose shop, and then get the system charged up and you are done.

Thanks Andrew. I'm pretty handy with fabbing up stuff, so mounts and brackets aren't a challenge. Sounds like the best thing to do is go for a universal fit and make it work. The car already has one of those cheapie add on under dash stand alone units, so I have the compressor and under hood AC components. But the current unit takes up too much leg space (and I think I can use it better in one of my other cars anyways). So I was looking to go with a cleaner approach. I would be open to factory uit, just figured it would be harder to find and possibly need enough work to make it worth buying new.

No, the boxes are very similar but different.

and just as an fyi, the Vintage air unit is not a perfect drop in on anything.

It's a street rod unit adapted to fit YOUR application.
I did one in a 1970 E body and made my own brackets to make it 100% reversable.

I might be doing one in a 1965 Fury this winter