Classic Auto Air Install Experience

[Map63Vette]

Here's a quick picture I grabbed this morning of my center vent setup. I still need to paint the bezel trim to match my other ones and drill some more holes for the lower hardware to hold things in place, but overall it fits pretty nicely. I really need to buy black filament for my 3d printer next time. All of the bright blue stuff kind of stands out, lol.

 

[Dartswinger70]

I may need AC in my Dart cause
1. It's hotter now than it was 30 years ago and
2. I'm not 27 any more...

 

[Map63Vette]

I may need AC in my Dart cause
1. It's hotter now than it was 30 years ago and
2. I'm not 27 any more...

Interestingly enough for me, the Dart is actually moderately comfortable to drive even in hotter temps than my Viper. There's something going on with the A/C in the Viper, but that aside it just gets really stuffy and putting the windows down doesn't really help it as much. The Dart has the cowl vent that works really well and keeps good airflow in the car without having to open a window, so I can drive it into the 80s and still be okay, though it gets hot pretty quick once you stop moving. I don't tend the run the A/C in it on my morning drive very often unless it's just really humid out.

 

[str12-340]

I live in the Pacific Northwest right near Puget Sound. Until about 20015 I would have said that air conditioning for a car or a house was a waste of money... now I have both.

 

[Map63Vette]

I think I may have sorted some of my poor idle cooling issues as well. I originally went after my electric fan setup and the lack of proper mounting and shrouding as I suspected that my system wasn't effectively pulling air through the condenser at idle since it wasn't really all that well sealed to anything. Fortunately, my radiator had some mounting points on the frame of it for a shroud originally (still no idea what the radiator actually came out of though), so I used those to mount some tubes with tabs attached to hold my generic dual fan setup. Made some close off panels from sheet metal as well to try to force the air to come through the radiator instead of from the side. I don't know if that actually made a huge difference or not, but it does look nice and probably makes the fans work better.

Coincidentally, after I got the new fan setup all mounted up I was idling the car and turned the A/C on to force a fan on so I could feel around and see what the airflow was doing and if it was pulling through the radiator better. At this point I saw that the compressor was constantly kicking on and off every few seconds. I only had the fan on low, but the car hadn't been running that long, and it was still fairly warm outside, so I don't think I was already tripping the thermostat. The Megasquirt has a setting that will prevent the A/C from turning on if the rpms aren't high enough, but I was never sure if this meant you just couldn't turn it on, or whether it would turn it off if they dipped too low. I have been fighting a surging idle and did some work to clean up my tune and while I was at it, I set the A/C minimum down a little. I had it at 600 before because I have my car set to idle ~650 full hot without A/C on and 700-750 with the A/C engages, but the cam and tune was letting it dip down under that 600 limit. So I think the computer was constantly turning the compressor on and off at idle whenever the rpm was dipping, which was making it blow warmer. I've got an updated tune that idles a little more stably and holds closer to 750 with the A/C on and it seems to be more consistent temps on the vents. I'm thinking it might just like the extra bit of rpm as well to keep the compressor spinning.

 

[Map63Vette]

Here's the latest on my controls mounting. Designed a plate to mount the potentiometers and switch directly and had it made by SendCutSend. There's a bent flange the switch bolts to (they do bending now as well). I had it zinc plated like the original, though opted for black instead of yellow so it wouldn't show as much behind the trim. They can insert studs as a service as well to match the original design even more, but they didn't have the OEM 10-24 size available. I could have just done 10-32 in retrospect, but it works fine. It's nice to have it mounted more solidly than my temporary plastic piece.

 

[Map63Vette]

Here's an almost complete install picture. I got the trim painted and the knobs finally mounted, but I need to get some white paint for the letters and reprint the knob extensions as they are too loose. I had to cut down the posts on the back of the trim where you would typically screw the plate to. Not sure why those were so different between the 67 and later years, but it's also very possible I just have incorrect parts as I never had the 67 trim to begin with. I need to paint the rest of my trim again to match the new stuff, but overall I pretty happy with the setup and having everything finally screwed in.