Been working on a Classic Auto Air install in my 340 Demon for about a month now. It's way too hot here to drive these cars this time of year, so it seemed like a perfect time to finally make the well needed and overdue upgrade 
First thing we did was remove the seats & floor console to make the underdash work more accessible. I would highly recommend this, as there is quite a bit of work to do under the dash.....
I spent some time with a couple of techs from Classic via phone even before beginning the install, as my car has a 6pk and requires a few mods to make this system work. They were quite helpful and I give kudos to them for that :thumbup:
Here's a couple of beginning pics.......
Here's the old heater box that was restored, but now removed...
And the new AC box in the kit from Classic
This system uses your original heater control panel and sliding levers, but requires some minor changes....
I pulled the carpet up from behind the drivers seat and lookie what I found there LOL. It's been lost for years....doh'
Using your existing heater control panel with this kit keeps the factory look inside the car. You can see the new fan switch installed below with all the new wiring and new cables that they supply also.
There's a plate supplied in the kit to cover the pass side fresh air vent which gets eliminated
We pulled the existing and original insulation pad down off the inside firewall and had to modify it some to fit the new AC box.
The AC tubes required some gentle coaxing to fit thru the firewall, but finally went in. Don't even attempt to try to do this step by yourself. You need someone under the dash inside the car and another person working under the hood........Be prepared for some frustrations
The mounting bracket for the left side of the AC box wasn't even close to fitting, so we fabbed something up........Not a biggie
Here's my little helper taking a break from all his hard work ROFL
Continuing on inside the car, it was time to drill a few holes and mount the 3 AC vents supplied. Driver side single, center dual and pass side....
Just can't find good help nowadays.........lazy POS
The kit came with a cheapo piece of clear rubber hose to use for the condensation drain. I wasn't about to install that in my black engine bay....
I went looking for something to use instead at Home Depot, O'Reilly and finally ended up @ a lawn sprinkler store LOL. I purchased a couple of 90* plastic fittings and a 1' section of hard plastic drip line. Had to grind off the ridges of the 90* fitting and painted it black. Came out nice and much better than what was supplied in the kit IMO.........
Moving under the hood........Drained about 1 1/2 gal of coolant from the system. Removed the fan, shroud and disconnected the trans cooler lines. The top radiator bolts need to be removed and the lower bolts loosened, so the radiator can lean forward for the condenser installation. You don't have to pull the radiator to do this....
The condenser slipped in pretty easily and needs to be located as far towards the drivers side as possible. The brackets to secure the condenser are sandwiched between the radiator and radiator support, so no drilling required to mount it
Since all the coolant hoses were coming off or being changed to add the AC, it seemed like a good time to modify the ugly hose clamps using some heat shrink tubing. It's a trick I saw in a thread here on FABO awhile back and liked how it looked, so.......
Here's a couple pics of the Sanden compressor that came in the kit. I've seen these used on lots of hot rods, so I'm hoping it will be kool 8-) for the AZ desert :sunny:
To answer some questions already posted above, the compressor is mounted directly above the water pump, just like it was designed in the kit. We did however have to "clock" it 90* towards the pass side to allow the needed clearance for the 6pk air cleaner
We had to get a little creative with shims and spacers to get all the pulleys, belts, etc. to line up, but I think it looks pretty good......
fingers crossed
The receiver/dryer mounted almost perfectly in the recessed area of the pass inner fender and the lines fed right thru the factory hole in the radiator support.
Time to address the supplied AC lines now. We layed them out how we wanted them to run for a test-fit. The suction line wouldn't work for my application because of the compressor being moved 90*, so we marked the hose how we needed the fittings angled and I took it to an AC shop here in town (recommended by Classic Air). They custom made a line for me while I waited for $25 :thumbup:
Here's a pic of the new heater hoses installed with the inline heater control valve.
Also of note, the kit is designed for both heater hoses to be 5/8 instead of one 1/2" and one 5/8" as mine was originally. So also needed to order a new fitting for the intake.......
And here's the kinda cheezy plastic glovebox supplied with the kit. It's smaller than the original and doesn't fit very well, but its in........
First thing we did was remove the seats & floor console to make the underdash work more accessible. I would highly recommend this, as there is quite a bit of work to do under the dash.....
I spent some time with a couple of techs from Classic via phone even before beginning the install, as my car has a 6pk and requires a few mods to make this system work. They were quite helpful and I give kudos to them for that :thumbup:
Here's a couple of beginning pics.......
Here's the old heater box that was restored, but now removed...
And the new AC box in the kit from Classic
This system uses your original heater control panel and sliding levers, but requires some minor changes....
I pulled the carpet up from behind the drivers seat and lookie what I found there LOL. It's been lost for years....doh'
Using your existing heater control panel with this kit keeps the factory look inside the car. You can see the new fan switch installed below with all the new wiring and new cables that they supply also.
There's a plate supplied in the kit to cover the pass side fresh air vent which gets eliminated
We pulled the existing and original insulation pad down off the inside firewall and had to modify it some to fit the new AC box.
The AC tubes required some gentle coaxing to fit thru the firewall, but finally went in. Don't even attempt to try to do this step by yourself. You need someone under the dash inside the car and another person working under the hood........Be prepared for some frustrations
The mounting bracket for the left side of the AC box wasn't even close to fitting, so we fabbed something up........Not a biggie
Here's my little helper taking a break from all his hard work ROFL
Continuing on inside the car, it was time to drill a few holes and mount the 3 AC vents supplied. Driver side single, center dual and pass side....
Just can't find good help nowadays.........lazy POS
The kit came with a cheapo piece of clear rubber hose to use for the condensation drain. I wasn't about to install that in my black engine bay....
I went looking for something to use instead at Home Depot, O'Reilly and finally ended up @ a lawn sprinkler store LOL. I purchased a couple of 90* plastic fittings and a 1' section of hard plastic drip line. Had to grind off the ridges of the 90* fitting and painted it black. Came out nice and much better than what was supplied in the kit IMO.........
Moving under the hood........Drained about 1 1/2 gal of coolant from the system. Removed the fan, shroud and disconnected the trans cooler lines. The top radiator bolts need to be removed and the lower bolts loosened, so the radiator can lean forward for the condenser installation. You don't have to pull the radiator to do this....
The condenser slipped in pretty easily and needs to be located as far towards the drivers side as possible. The brackets to secure the condenser are sandwiched between the radiator and radiator support, so no drilling required to mount it
Since all the coolant hoses were coming off or being changed to add the AC, it seemed like a good time to modify the ugly hose clamps using some heat shrink tubing. It's a trick I saw in a thread here on FABO awhile back and liked how it looked, so.......
Here's a couple pics of the Sanden compressor that came in the kit. I've seen these used on lots of hot rods, so I'm hoping it will be kool 8-) for the AZ desert :sunny:
To answer some questions already posted above, the compressor is mounted directly above the water pump, just like it was designed in the kit. We did however have to "clock" it 90* towards the pass side to allow the needed clearance for the 6pk air cleaner
We had to get a little creative with shims and spacers to get all the pulleys, belts, etc. to line up, but I think it looks pretty good......
fingers crossed
The receiver/dryer mounted almost perfectly in the recessed area of the pass inner fender and the lines fed right thru the factory hole in the radiator support.
Time to address the supplied AC lines now. We layed them out how we wanted them to run for a test-fit. The suction line wouldn't work for my application because of the compressor being moved 90*, so we marked the hose how we needed the fittings angled and I took it to an AC shop here in town (recommended by Classic Air). They custom made a line for me while I waited for $25
:thumbup:Here's a pic of the new heater hoses installed with the inline heater control valve.
Also of note, the kit is designed for both heater hoses to be 5/8 instead of one 1/2" and one 5/8" as mine was originally. So also needed to order a new fitting for the intake.......
And here's the kinda cheezy plastic glovebox supplied with the kit. It's smaller than the original and doesn't fit very well, but its in........
