I have a 70 Chevelle Concours wagon w/o a/c and has a 350/350TH. I've read the helpful discussion on the 2-22 posting by Gerald and all the tech gurus. I am about to close a deal with a very helpful and knowledgable guy in my home state. He'll provide me with ALL of the a/c system incl.compr/cond/evap/ducts/
hoses/vents/wiring/controls from a '72. He's apparently done this conversion several times. When I read Al's and Tom's comments about the firewall, I skidded....

I would like to know from Al, Tom, and anyone else whether I am going down a road that I'll really regret later. I spoke with Vintage Air and they only have a kit designed for a '69. They did not give me any level of comfort about the use of their kit. So, Tom, did the templates from a/c cars work? Is there a critical fit anywhere?
Just to help/hurt the situation, I am also planning to change to '72 SS dash while I'm there. I received some good advice from RStoltz re: changing the PC board at the same time.

TIA. This site is invaluable!

Mark T.
70 Chevelle Concours Wagon
Team Member #328

Hi Mark. I sure don't mean to discourage anyone from tackling a project. It's just a bit of a handful to do an A/C conversion and that's probably what I was referring to in a previous post.
Sure, it can be done, and maybe it's even fun but it approaches the 'next level' in hands on changes. There are so many little things to attend to. If you have a good donor car it really helps.
Whether you are going down the wrong road is up to your abilities, but if you are comfy changing out the dash, you are halfway there. Air is nice and your wagon would be a fine cruiser with the addition. http://www.chevelles.com/forum/smile.gif (hopefully you already have tinted glass?)

It's not to be taken lightly though; bigger rad, fan shroud, brackets, kick panels, pulleys, hoses, clips, wires, cables, relays etc and even the R12 itself.
Make a list and be sure you have everything you need in advance.

ps, some things like the receiver/dryer will be toast if the system was opened up for any length of time. POA valve, sensors etc are also a bit of a leap of faith unless you can see the system in operation.

Thanks, Al. That's good advice. I do have access to a great a/c shop, who'll do the check the integrity of the coils, compressor, replace the receiver/drier, and do the final pump down, and charging.
I appreciate you mentioning the kick panels. Now I have the one's with the vents in them. Can you tell me what about the change is for an a/c car?

Thanks!

Well, for my year (67) the vents are disabled. The a/c equipment uses this spot (passengers side) so the vents don't actually work - on either side.

A factory assembly manual is a must. Sounds like you are all set.

Check, Al.
I hope this doesn't seem too ridiculous, but should I get a '72 factory assembly manual because the parts are coming from a '72 SS.
Or, dare I say it, do I need both? Would I need the wiring manuals for both, too?
Thanks

Tsuki, reading your post, I'm confused. Why would you change out the dash? The 70 dash already has the vents in it. Any car without wing windows already has the right dash, AFAIK. The template deal works fine, you just need to be mentally prepared for size of this job. Just cut out the right side of the firewall of the donor car, overlay it over the project car, mark what needs to be covered over and what needs to be cut. Essentially, the heater hole is horizontal and the A/C hole is vertical. They overlap some, so cover over the old hole first. They are of similar size. You can't see any of these modifications after the evaporator housing is installed. I've done a couple of these that have done well on the show circuit afterwards.

Search this site for threads on this subject, there have been a couple lately with good info in them.

If you have a good shop to work with, it'll be a lot easier. Since you're going to be building the system from scratch, I'd seriously consider using R-134a in it.

Tom

Tom,
My car is a '70 Concours wagon with wind wings and no factory a.c. There are no holes where the normally 3 (?) in-dash vents are installed. I believe this is correct.
Also, I need to cut plastic and maybe even metal on one side with the dash I have. I was considering a dash changeout to an SS dash for the vents, gauges, and, you guessed it, the look. Any thoughts?

Beats me, I thought all 70 and later didn't have wing windows. Probably because all I ever pay any attention to is 2 dr hardtops. Sorry, I've never changed out the actual dash itself on a 70, silly me, I thought they were welded in pretty good.

Tom

Just a quick reply to fill in some of the blanks, the vent style kick panels need to come out, and a vacuum operated vent goes in the pass side and the A/C kick covers it..drivers side gets a blockoff plate and the A/C kick covers it...also make sure to get the cowl vacuum operated vent, slides in pass side cowl from outside the car. This is not a difficult conversion but you would be better off taking the whole thing out of the donor car yourself so you could see where everything goes. Dash comes out with 5 bolts, disconnect speedo cable, unbolt fuse box from firewall, pull wire from dimmer switch, and take heater control cables off. This takes out whole dash with wiring after you get the dashpad off which takes 5 minutes. oh yeah and got to disconnect jam switches,ground from ebrake lever,and unplug harness going to rear of car. jees Im sure I forgot something but good luck!

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70 chevelle ss396 conv
66 chevelle ss396 hdp/conv

droptop70ss,
Wow! Thanks some good specifics! It sounds like you have a few under your belt. I hope I might be able to e-mail you if I run into a snag. I'll be sure to keep your info handy.