I was driving my 65 Bonneville with the a/c off when the smoke came out, when I pulled over the belt was boiling rubber. I cut the belt off, and replaced the clutch bearing about 2 weeks later. That was 4 years ago, and the A/C still works fine, and I still have a full charge of R-12.
Just replace the bearing. If the compressor goes out later your out $23 for a bearing, and you'll have spent about $30 on the tooling to change the bearing.
The P/N for the bearing is 5908-VAW.
If you choose to replace the compressor you will need the equipment to recover the freon so you can open up the system, and the equipment to evacuate the air that gets in once you have resealed the system. Or farm the job out. But most A/C shops will expect you to buy the compressor from them, and will want to replace the receiver dryer and the condenser, with some R-12 expect to pay around $1,200.
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65 Bonneville Brougham 4DHT
65 Grand Prix 2DHT......now parts
65 Catalina 2+2 2DHT
65 Catalina Safari 4DSW
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