Man it gets hot in Texas! I mean HOT! In the summer no matter where you go or when you go it is pretty warm, Like 90 degrees for the low. We decided that if we could have A/C installed with out major modifications, like no cutting of the dash, body, or firewall, we would get it installed. After talking to a few places and telling them my expectations one finally said he would look at the car to determine if he could do it. We drove BOB over to his shop and after checking everything out he said he could do exactly what we wanted, The only thing was we would lose the left fresh air vent and he would have to add two additional vents under the dash, and we would lose the glove box.
This was acceptable to us since we seldom used the vents, who needs hot air blowing on you. The new dash vents would be located on both sides of the original heater/defrost controls using those mounting holes so no new holes would have to be drilled into the dash. The original dash side vents and stock defrost vents would be connected to the new system. The original controls were used to control the heater, defrost, and temperature. Switches were added where the glove box was to turn on the compressor and a rotary switch was added next to the left vent control to use as the thermostat.
Under the hood the original blower and passenger side plenum was removed as was the heater components under the dash. A compressor mount was fabricated that placed the dual belt compressor where the second grove could run the belt for the generator. New hoses for the A/C and heater were installed and we were ready to go.
And go we did! With more comfort than imagined. The only problem was that when sitting in traffic the extra load would make the motor temp run hot, not over heating hot, but hotter than I liked to see. At this point we had the original radiator tanks fitted with a four core body and added a pusher fan. This pretty much ended that issue.
So our goal was met. We had Air Conditioned comfort and would be able to replace all of the stock items should we ever decide to do that.
Another thing about the pusher fan. Some times when in parades or very heavy traffic, even without the A/C on the temp of the motor will start to climb. With a flick of the switch in the glove box for the fan it cools right down. I think that is a good addition even if you do not have A/C