[Nicks67GTO]

Originally Posted by Old Blue 66

I just finished putting that stuff on the floor of my car last week. I never considered going that far up the firewall, but then again, I don't have the dash out. Great idea.

Ill be dynamatting the rest of the interior at a later time this spring. Have you noticed any reduction in noise?

[Old Blue 66]

Originally Posted by Nicks67GTO

Ill be dynamatting the rest of the interior at a later time this spring. Have you noticed any reduction in noise?

I haven't finished with it yet. The sound deadener is down ( I used the Eastwood product) but the carpet hasn't come yet.

[Nicks67GTO]

Well Iv'e made some progress this week. I got some Dynamat tape in the mail from Amazon and I taped up all the Dynamat seams under my dash. Nothing too cool but progress is progress and im all done with the dynamat up under the dash.

I started my Vintage Air install. Ill be honest....this is kind of a PITA and i'm not 100% sold on the quality for the money paid. The plastic evaporator is a thin housing. Way thinner than anything GM ever stuck in a car. I guess it saves weight but at the same time, one really stiff kick and i'm afraid the unit might end up with a hole in it? I also think vintage air has a horrible looking firewall panel cover. For the money paid you would think they could engineer a fiberglass cover that didn't look like hell. I opted to leave my ACdelete.com parts in place, remove the blower motor and make a custom plate for the hoses to go though the blower motor hole under the fender, of course this adds to the PITA factor so maybe thats part of my gripe. I'm much happier with the look of the AC delete parts at this point. I will give them this. The instructions are top notch. That sounds petty but if you have ever done anything custom to any car, you'll know this is a huge deal. Especially for something like this. anyhow here is a shot of the evaporator mounted.....Ill do a big update on this eventually with my full opinion after its up and running....



So unfortunately my glovebox radio setup I installed last summer will not work with the vintage air. It works with the stock AC and non AC cars but the VA unit takes up too much space. Ill be selling this setup as a whole, radio and aluminum glovebox adapter. If you're interested PM me ill be putting it up for sale in the next few days.



I got my GMTILT.com tilt steering column installed today. I'm very happy with the product. Jim has been pretty good about everything and the column looks fantastic. The tilt functions perfect. This is a MUCH cheaper alternative to paying stupid ass money for a stock '67 tilt.











I got my Speedhut gauges installed and wired up today as well. I'm am extremely happy with the outcome here. I love everything about it. It's very different but it keeps the vintage '67 flavor at a glance. That's the theme. Feel 1967, perform 2015. I'm going to throw a huge shoutout to Speedhut too. The gauges are top quality, they are extremely easy to wire up, they are practically plug and play and the directions are fantastic. Again a huge deal. A+ to Speedhut.






Ill be updating later this week as the Vintage air install continues.

[HWYSTR455]

Valuable feedback on the Vintage Air setup, thank you. Now I'm curious about the Classic Auto Air setup's box, and will see if I can find one to look at in person.

I noticed a block off plate at a cruise-in 2 years ago and thought the same of the look/quality, hence why I opted for a firewall smoothie plate. Sure I'm going to be nervous when selecting and drilling holes in it!

As for the hose pass-through, I've been thinking about that as well. There are manifolds available that can be used and improve the pass through, even if you can't see it, it's something I feel is worth the effort.

http://www.vintageair.com/2014catalo...08-15%2082.pdf

I'm looking forward to moving to Speedhut gauges, have heard nothing but good about them. I know they still do stencils on the faces, and although no longer listed on their' website, going to call and ask about the Pontiac arrowhead logo.

.

[PurplePackFan]

Nick,

I know what you mean about the VA system. I think it looks like a pretty good set up, but not perfect. Here are some ideas that I went with for my install:

I agree that the block-off plate, as designed, looks like crap. Since my project was a frame-off, I welded in the plate and filled it in with bondo to give a smooth firewall appearance.


I also got a couple 90 deg fittings and ran the heater hoses through the firewall instead of through the fan hole.


As can be seen from the first picture above, I found a pre-bent 5/8" hose and used that to come through the firewall and mount the solenoid valve. Much cleaner looking.

I also mounted the drier on the core support instead of the recommended spot on the inner fender. This meant making a couple hose modifications, but again, a cleaner look.


Another thing to be aware of is that the controls can interfere with all that tubing behind the dash. It was a PITA to get everything aligned back there so the sliders weren't obstruct by the tubing. So make sure these have enough room to operate.


I have all my hoses hooked up and tightened and I went through the test procedure for the controller. Next is to get the system charged and see if it works. Not quite there yet.

Good luck with your install and I will chime in again if I think of anything helpful.

[Nicks67GTO]

Originally Posted by PurplePackFan

Nick,

I know what you mean about the VA system. I think it looks like a pretty good set up, but not perfect. Here are some ideas that I went with for my install:

I agree that the block-off plate, as designed, looks like crap. Since my project was a frame-off, I welded in the plate and filled it in with bondo to give a smooth firewall appearance.


I also got a couple 90 deg fittings and ran the heater hoses through the firewall instead of through the fan hole.


As can be seen from the first picture above, I found a pre-bent 5/8" hose and used that to come through the firewall and mount the solenoid valve. Much cleaner looking.

I also mounted the drier on the core support instead of the recommended spot on the inner fender. This meant making a couple hose modifications, but again, a cleaner look.


Another thing to be aware of is that the controls can interfere with all that tubing behind the dash. It was a PITA to get everything aligned back there so the sliders weren't obstruct by the tubing. So make sure these have enough room to operate.


I have all my hoses hooked up and tightened and I went through the test procedure for the controller. Next is to get the system charged and see if it works. Not quite there yet.

Good luck with your install and I will chime in again if I think of anything helpful.

Sweet. Any help is great. I'm not a big fan of how it goes together out of the box. It seems like its function over form. Although my car is no show piece, i'm going to try to make the install as clean as possible too. Did you have to get new hoses made from a local AC shop? Who did your crimping?

[Nicks67GTO]

Originally Posted by HWYSTR455

Valuable feedback on the Vintage Air setup, thank you. Now I'm curious about the Classic Auto Air setup's box, and will see if I can find one to look at in person.

I noticed a block off plate at a cruise-in 2 years ago and thought the same of the look/quality, hence why I opted for a firewall smoothie plate. Sure I'm going to be nervous when selecting and drilling holes in it!

As for the hose pass-through, I've been thinking about that as well. There are manifolds available that can be used and improve the pass through, even if you can't see it, it's something I feel is worth the effort.

http://www.vintageair.com/2014catalo...08-15%2082.pdf

I'm looking forward to moving to Speedhut gauges, have heard nothing but good about them. I know they still do stencils on the faces, and although no longer listed on their' website, going to call and ask about the Pontiac arrowhead logo.

.

I'm pretty sure you can get the Arrowhead logo on the Speedhut stuff. If not you can upload any graphic you want to the gauges on their website. They will do anything. The best part is if you get sick of looking at the gauge faces, you can send them back in and have them do another look.

As far as the VA unit goes....its just a first impression. Iv'e read nothing but good stuff about the function. Having a smooth firewall would be ideal for this install. I'm probably going to be messing with locations of everything to make this as clean of an install as possible. Of course this means It will be taking more time than expected.

[HWYSTR455]

I was thinking studs on the inside of the firewall so you don't have the 2 going through.

.

[PurplePackFan]

As far as the hoses go, you do need to bring them to an A/C shop or one that will do A/C or hydraulic hoses, yes. I searched online to find the fittings, you have to do the research and figure out what you need. It ended up that Summit carries most of the fittings.