Car came w a/c, should I put it back in?

Posted By: cudabitten

Car came w a/c, should I put it back in? - 06/09/13 02:52 PM

Hey my 74 cuda came with A/C. I need to determine soon if I will re-install it. I dont really want the extra clutter and wieght in the engine bay. I never really used the a/c back in the day anyway. I just dont want to regret it. I was thinking maybe just install the condenser up front and the evaporator in the heater box so I could always install the rest later? What do you guys think?

Posted By: Shoozy

Re: Car came w a/c, should I put it back in? - 06/09/13 02:59 PM

is to use it. I don't know your age but as we "advance" it's a lot more enjoyable cruising with A/C than sweating and stuck to a vinyl seat. Assuming you're not racing it and looking to shave every pound my opinion is to install it and don't look back.

Posted By: RapidRobert

Re: Car came w a/c, should I put it back in? - 06/09/13 03:05 PM

Quote:

My is to use it. I don't know your age but as we "advance" it's a lot more enjoyable cruising with A/C than sweating and stuck to a vinyl seat.

X10 I'm dying for A/C! A person could swap aluminum components like manifold/pump housing etc to make up for the weight. I took up jogging & became a vegan (gradually) & lost more weight than swapping to headers/alum manifold & even stealth heads combined

. I felt better & even more importantly the car went faster

Posted By: scratchnfotraction

Re: Car came w a/c, should I put it back in? - 06/09/13 03:06 PM

Quote:

Hey my 74 cuda came with A/C. I need to determine soon if I will re-install it. I dont really want the extra clutter and wieght in the engine bay. I never really used the a/c back in the day anyway. I just dont want to regret it. I was thinking maybe just install the condenser up front and the evaporator in the heater box so I could always install the rest later? What do you guys think?

a/c is nice but expensive for my budget///so i cant miss what I never had.

Posted By: Brian_wo

Re: Car came w a/c, should I put it back in? - 06/09/13 03:24 PM

I used to pull that stuff off and throw it away!
What an idiot!

We are talking about adding ac to the RR and looking at buying a second vert and putting ac in it.

Posted By: Suregrip391

Re: Car came w a/c, should I put it back in? - 06/09/13 03:27 PM

I'm all for AC myself. The one thing I could never understand about some posts here on moparts is that "usually" when discussing a car , most folks here always say " nice car ... But too bad it has AC "

Why is that a bad thing? Are the AC haters racers? Just performance minded? I'd be curious to know....

But yes!! I'd install it!!!

Posted By: BDW

Re: Car came w a/c, should I put it back in? - 06/09/13 05:41 PM

Without a doubt, ADD it!
And switch over to the Sanden compressor

Posted By: cudabitten

Re: Car came w a/c, should I put it back in? - 06/09/13 06:15 PM

Pictures of your scale?

Hope its calibrated..

Posted By: screamindriver

Re: Car came w a/c, should I put it back in? - 06/10/13 04:35 AM

Nothing worse than an A/C car with empty holes or capped hoses on a "restored" car...Makes the car look cheap and incomplete no matter how nice it's finished...

Posted By: Silver70

Re: Car came w a/c, should I put it back in? - 06/10/13 05:56 PM

My car came with ac however I didn't want to reinstall it yet. Mostly because I didn't want to spend the money now... so mine will get blocked off. I personally hate ac, no matter how hot, give me a headache

However, if I sell it, ac will help out later. I also recommend going with an under hood kit like buchillion sells.

Posted By: RSNOMO

Re: Car came w a/c, should I put it back in? - 06/10/13 06:10 PM

Quote:

I don't know your age but as we "advance" it's a lot more enjoyable cruising with A/C than sweating and stuck to a vinyl seat.

(And this is coming from Georgia)...

Absolutely install the A/C...

This is from someone who's made runs of 10 hours plus over the years...

And crawled on Woodward...

Everything on mine but the evaporator was gone, so I didn't, but I sure do regret it...

According to the 'price guides'. it adds value to the car...

Resto shop guys I know say A/C is requested more and more...

NO REASON not to, unless yer playing stoplight tag...

Posted By: cudabitten

Re: Car came w a/c, should I put it back in? - 06/11/13 01:51 AM

Quote:

Nothing worse than an A/C car with empty holes or capped hoses on a "restored" car...Makes the car look cheap and incomplete no matter how nice it's finished...

Point taken.

Posted By: 69B3GT

Re: Car came w a/c, should I put it back in? - 06/11/13 02:15 AM

The only reason I ditched the AC in my dart was im on a TIGHT budget and trying to go fast. So it was weight I didnt need. With that being said, if I were building a cruiser, it would have AC. no questions asked.

Posted By: screamindriver

Re: Car came w a/c, should I put it back in? - 06/12/13 01:43 AM

Quote:

Quote:

Nothing worse than an A/C car with empty holes or capped hoses on a "restored" car...Makes the car look cheap and incomplete no matter how nice it's finished...

Point taken.

You could design your system to look great and not cost a fortune...Most the aftermarket AC companies use a bunch of standardized parts in the kits that you could find cheap if you look...Here's the system I designed on my cuda using different parts and vendor's stuff...Clears the shaker and brought all the lines out on the passenger side..

Posted By: MoparMarq

Re: Car came w a/c, should I put it back in? - 06/12/13 03:30 AM

Quote:

Without a doubt, ADD it!
And switch over to the Sanden compressor

x2

Shoulda put it back on mine after the resto, with the Sanden. Woulda been more like original.

Posted By: 451Mopar

Re: Car came w a/c, should I put it back in? - 06/12/13 06:58 AM

If your going to have it as a street car, the A/C is nicer as you get older. It is a pain to try finding all the parts removed if you take it off now and try to put it back at a later date.

Vintage Air has full E-Body kits for less than $800. I think Classic Air is about the same cost?

I am planning on putting A/C on the Convertible, but it is going to take some time (and $$$$). I'm looking at doing a custom setup using the Vintage Air unit, and the Billet Specialties Tru-Trac system. The Tru-Trac is expensive, about $3K and comes with a Sanden SD-7 A/C Compressor.

Posted By: Challenger 1

Re: Car came w a/c, should I put it back in? - 06/12/13 02:05 PM

How old are you?

Of course I took it off my cars years ago. But back in 2006 I put it back on both of my cars. Used all Bouchinlon stuff under the front hood and all stock stuff inside the car. It works beautifully.
One of my cars are black and I have taken it out west many times during the summer, AC is so nice. My wife would not even get in my black car without it nowadays. Vegas last July it was 115 degrees, I think you would have died without it out there.

3 weeks ago we were in Fla and cruised the car for hours on the beach at 10 mph with the windows down and the AC on. It would have been too hot to cruise 10mph without AC in a black car.
My AC is always on all summer long whether the windows are up or down. So worth it!!
It was still 95 degrees this night at 11 at night and was over 100 this day and we drove close to 200 miles during the day in the Serra mountains all around Lake Tahoe, what a day!!

Posted By: BDW

Re: Car came w a/c, should I put it back in? - 06/12/13 04:11 PM

Must have in FL, the humidity is a killer too!

Posted By: Silver70

Re: Car came w a/c, should I put it back in? - 06/12/13 06:24 PM

Quote:

Quote:

Quote:

Nothing worse than an A/C car with empty holes or capped hoses on a "restored" car...Makes the car look cheap and incomplete no matter how nice it's finished...

Point taken.

You could design your system to look great and not cost a fortune...Most the aftermarket AC companies use a bunch of standardized parts in the kits that you could find cheap if you look...Here's the system I designed on my cuda using different parts and vendor's stuff...Clears the shaker and brought all the lines out on the passenger side..

How about a parts list? Make it easy on us

Posted By: BDW

Re: Car came w a/c, should I put it back in? - 06/12/13 08:50 PM

More info here

https://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/show...&PHPSESSID=

I started with working AC car and the Sanden conversion cost was under $600.

This is for a SB (340). *** UPDATED ***

$95 Charge AC system with 134
$125 Custom made AC hoses using factory parts
$45 AC Drier (33317) / Expansion Valve (3884) / Thread sealer
$118 Sanden 4471 Compressor
$142 Vintage Air bracket & WIX air filter (162774-SDA & 42044)
$18 2 - Duralast 15575 belts

$543 Total A/C System

Posted By: LimelightCuda

Re: Car came w a/c, should I put it back in? - 06/13/13 12:05 PM

Neither one of my cars had factory installed AC. If it were me I would definitely install the AC. I've driven my car 500 miles to the Mopar Nationals and 180 miles to Carlisle (usually the hottest weekend of the year) and I wish I had AC. My plan is to save up for the conversion kit. Good luck with your car.

Posted By: cudabitten

Re: Car came w a/c, should I put it back in? - 06/13/13 08:56 PM

Thanks, maybe I'll see the green cuda at Carlisle.

Posted By: Scott Carl

Re: Car came w a/c, should I put it back in? - 06/14/13 04:15 AM

First after-market (day two) thing Dad did to my (his then) Challenger was take it to Sears and have a/c installed. It was 6 mos old then. Well I'm now about the same age he was when he bought it and as I put it back together, absolutely its going back in!

Gonna try to integrate the evaporator further into the dash as the original under dash housing and mounts have disintegrated over the years but the York(?) compressor is getting a nice paint job and I may even get the ugly A/M mounting bracket chromed

Posted By: gomangoRTSE

Re: Car came w a/c, should I put it back in? - 06/14/13 04:55 AM

Once I turned 40, I learned to appreciate the following.

Good BBQ
Great food
Nice looking younger women (whom were only slighter older than my daughter)
A nice sounding car with some giddyup.
A cool, and quiet car that the wife and I can enjoy riding up and down the road in.

Too many monster car shows now where the cruising is slow and I care little for sweating out what would otherwise be an enjoyable event.