[fbrown]

It feels like I'm going back wards. I received the Vintage Air unit around the first of August. It turns out that I have to remove the dash in order to install the vintage Air Unit. Access to the Windshield vents is not possible with the dash installed and I had to cut up the factory vent and use part of the factory vent and part of the vintage air unit in order to hook up the driver side windshield vent.

The in dash factory tach would not work with the ECM tach signal. I gave up on making it work and purchased a Speedhut unit.

Cruise Control - I think I found the problem. I forget to hook 12V to the stalk.

I managed to strip the threads on the ignition switch. Waiting for another one.

I started powder coating brackets and other parts. I wish I had done this sooner. I had an Eastwood unit for a long time, but didn't use it because I thought the learning curve would take too long. WRONG - powder coating is quick and easy compared to painting with epoxy based paints. No mixing, no induction time, (time after mixing before you should spray), no messy cleanup, three coats of epoxy takes around 90 minutes. It takes around 2 hours from start of mixing to end of cleaning and you can't really install the part for a couple of days. Powder coating from start to finish takes about 40 minutes and you can install the part right away.

Vacation and work has slowed my build down in the last two months. I usually work three days a week helping my girl friend with her business, but I picked up an engineering job and found myself helping her 5 days a week for a while. Things have been a bit busy lately.

I ordered a Vintage Air unit for a 68 Chevelle. While I am showing some of what I went through, Vintage Air should have a SureFit unit for a 68 GTO available by next summer. I am told they have a car in their shop and are working on the kit now, but don't expect to have anything available for many months.

I used the Chevelle lower bracket. I made an upper one. Failed to take a photo but was a simple bracket.


The lines as supplied for the Chevelle, there is a place for the lines to go. All I had to do was drill a couple of holes and make a bracket to support the lines.




The bracket to support the lines.


And yes the hidden headlights miss the lines and dryer.


Cutting the old windshield duct. You can see where I grafted part of the vintage outlet to the Pontiac piece.




Brackets to hold the driver side duct



Driver side installed



The passenger side was easier. Some modification to the vintage air part.





Trial fit of the evaporator unit.



Bracket for the vintage air controls



These are the first parts I powder coated. Used Eastwood Satin Black. The bracket with the large hole the one that supports the hard lines at the core support. The ring is a spacer to hold the vintage air control out from the panel.



Vintage air control unit installed in custom bracket



I did have to grind the edge of the vintage air controls to fit in the dash, about 1/32" each side. While the ground edge is not black, it is not visible since it is against a silver/chrome dash.


Charging the system was troublesome. My vacuum pump failed 20 minutes after I started. Needed to run for at least 45 minutes. My vacuum pump was at least 30 years old, so I can't complain. Had to buy new gauges since I didn't have a 4 port gauge set for R134 , my set was for R12. After reading about how critical it is to get the right amount of R134 in the system, I ending up buying a special scale for AC work. I have to say the charging of the system was very simple with the right tools and the system blows cold air.

So this is how my car looks now, waiting for the tach and the ignition switch.