My `70 Chevelle went to the paint shop with the heater hole in the firewall full of sheet metal and bondo,only leaving the one hole that vintage Air says that you need to attach the unit inside the car. The car came back with a beautiful painted fire wall, painted the same as the car. When I tried to install the unit, it is to long! the distance from the hole in the firewall to the kick panel isnt the same as the jack nut in the unit to the end of the blower motor. I called Vintage air tech, he said that in late 70 they changed the location of the heater box, so my hole in my fire wall is in the wrong place! The glove box they sent is biger than the entire door assembly,there is no way it will fit.The wiring diagram is incomplete, and the defrost vents have "s" clips that are supposed to hold them in place,well good luck, there is NO place to attach these hooks, either on the dash pad or on the metal flange by the windshield. Well you have probably herd all the bitchin you can handle for one post, but this was supposed to be a sure fit application made "for your car". Instructions say for `68-70 Checelle. The tech was absoutly NO help, just kept saying yea they changed that,and yea they changed this,I say Bull.With a hack saw and some glue, I`ll make it work, but no recomendation coming from here. Any one else had a problem like this?????

Not that it makes it any better, but, I also dabble in street rods. The cardinal RULE is to COMPLETELY assemble something BEFORE you do the finish painting. I've completely assembled a car from nothing to where you drive it around and make SURE all is well. Then blow it apart for the paint and detail work. Episodes like this make you remember next time. I've seen very little that REALLY fits like the vendor says. All of it takes some tweaking. I feel your pain Stan, been there done that.

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Dave Bradley
www.corvetteforum.net/classics/d1_bradley (http://www.corvetteforum.net/classics/d1_bradley)
'69 SS396 ragtop
'33 3W Coupe
'65 Vette BB Roadster

Yep....had to drill a new hole an inch or so over to get mine to mount up, too ('69). Also, mine had identical quick-connect electrical plugs on the blower motor and main unit. Kinda hard to plug male to male. http://www.chevelles.com/forum/smile.gif Those "s" clips ARE fun. I ended up using metal duct tape to hold mine in place. Also, I hope you don't have a factory am/fm radio. I didn't have enough depth to get mine in there after the v/a install. Oh, and I lost my center speakers (diff on a '70 I think) due to clearance problems. BUT.....I sure am glad I got it! The nice cool air during this hot weather sure is nice!!

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My Elky (http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/djw69elky09.jpg)
Arkansas Classic Chevelle Club (http://www.ac3online.net/index.html)
My Webpage (http://www.ac3online.net/djw/)

Danny Wooldridge
Member #1129
Aces #5044

i ran the hoses thru the firewall where the stock hoses went...found heater hoses with a 90 bend on one end to fit the box, and worked well...looks pretty stock...the s clips will work on the window lip after you get the dashpad installed...kinda holds them in place, but is tricky gettin in....as for the middle speaker, i found a smaller, thinner speaker, and mounted it to the speaker bracket further back...my AM-FM works now,,,not the greatest, but have hidden stereo, so was no big deal...just takes a little time and measuring...only thing i would do different is to move the pressure switch up againt the firewall...would take new ac hose, but would look better than on the firewall...hope this helps

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1970 BB El Camino 4sp
1970 GTO

Ditto on the mislocated hole. My inboard most top hole on the vintage air unit ( the bolt hole closest to where the heater hoses used to exit the firewall) was off. I had to drill a new hole about 1/2" away to get the box to fit under the dash.

As far as the defog vents to-- on my '69, there's a pinched-style body seam in the cowl area under the dash that the defogger vents slid onto. Same for the 68 El Camino I've installed a Vintage Air kit into (oddly enough on that car the bolt hole that was a problem on my car lined up pefectly). I don't know if there's the pinched seam on the 70-72 cars or not as I haven't gone dash-diving in one.

d1_bradley is right on the cardinal rule. "Easy bolt in installation!" usually means try to install it, cuss a lot, get out the die grinder, drill, and a BFH for good measure, rework some stuff, THEN bolt it in.

djw69elky-- I'm running dual speakers in the top of the dash on my 69 Chevelle-- they're 4" speakers on a Custom Autosound bracket. It's tight, but they do clear the vents and duct hoses.

Vintage air also shorted me some of the ducting... nothing a $20 trip to the local parts store didn't cure, but a minor irritation nonetheless.

My big Vintage Air "oopsie" was that they forgot to crimp the fitting on the discharge hose of the compressor. I missed this and assembled the system. Because of the way I had the hoses route, the natural curve of the hose held it together for a week until a 105 degree day... then the hose blew off, spraying freon and refridgeration oil everywhere, even the hot headers... I opened the hood, and as soon as the freon migrated and air hit the area the oil started a little fire. Good thing I had an extinguisher on me...

Installation issues aside, my Vintage Air unit has been working very well for 7 years now.

I just don't want to think what will happen should the evaporator or heater core ever develop a leak... they're sealed up in that box pretty good.

Thanks for the tip about the speakers Gokou. Next time I'm in the dash, I'll try to squeeze them in there. You're right about the "bolt-in". Always needs tweaking.

Hang in there, Stan. It'll be worth it. http://www.chevelles.com/forum/smile.gif

Thanks, for the replies. Not to wish anyone else bad luck, but its good to hear I am not in this alone. Just came in from the shop, 2 hrs making new brackets for the THING, if I ever get this installstion complete, I`m not ever turnin it off. Thanks for the help...

bump

I had some problems installing the Vintage air unit in my '65. The first unit that they sent me wasn't a "Sure Fit" unit. The salesman recommended a "Supercool" unit instead. It was so big, it didn't fit under the dashboard. When I tried to exchange it, the salesman told me that there is "No way" a "Sure-fit" unit would fit a factory a/c car. They took back the evaporator unit but refused to accept any of the other parts for return. The "Sure Fit" evaporator assembly fit perfectly as did the control cables. I had to fabricate brackets for the condenser and filter drier, a chore that would not have been necessary if they had sent me the "Sure-Fit" ones. Because they wouldn't supply me with the prefab hoses, I had to fabricate all of the hoses and have them crimped by a local auto parts store. They shorted me on refrig hose, duct hose and most of the fittings that they sent were the wrong size and type, so I had to buy new fittings. I am not happy with the amount of work that I had to do to get this project completed, and the quality of the unit is marginal in my opinion. I still haven't been able to charge the system, so I don't know how it will work, but I will sure keep you posted.

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65 Danube Blue MALIBU 4 door wagon, 350/330hp crate with 700R4, Factory air, Factory am/fm stereo.

[This message has been edited by JimN (edited 07-20-2002).]

[This message has been edited by JimN (edited 07-20-2002).]

[This message has been edited by JimN (edited 07-20-2002).]