Received the A/C hose kit the other day. I started mocking up hose routing. I quite like the little hose cascade effect on the inner fender.
A pleasant surprise came when I discovered that the Vintage Air fittings thread right on to the original style hard lines which lead to / from the condenser / evaporator.
A not so pleasant surprise involved encountering some difficulties with the fittings meant for the compressor. The beadlock crimp A/C line kit comes with two 135° fittings (-8 and -10 sized respectively, but really meant for the Sanden compressor's orientation) which have built in service ports and thread directly onto the compressor. I tried as many of the limited orientations as seemed plausible, but none routed the hoses conveniently while allowing reasonable access to the service ports.
Oh, and I did have to remove that bracket I had mentioned in my last post in order to get the -10 fitting in place. While it was off I performed a couple of modifications. The top of the bracket came off, was turned 180° and a 1/4” tall piece of plate welded in between the two pieces to raise it up a bit. This way the EGR pressure valve solenoid is still secured properly, the PCV line is unimpeded and it clears plenty of space for the compressor fittings (all while still fitting underneath the air cleaner).
I decided to ditch the 135° fittings altogether. There simply wasn't a good way to make them work, so I've now got some 90° ones on the way. When they arrive then I can mark hose orientation for the last remaining connections and then get them all beadlock crimped. In the meantime I've got plenty more tasks to resolve. The first one I tackled was to mount the A/C controls in the dash. The '67-'72 GenIV kit comes with adapters to retain the factory cable controls, but I've already got the 3 knobber electric jobber.
First, cut a plate to match:
Weld:
Make a new hole according to the template included with the instructions:
Test fit control panel:
I didn't get that upper edge quite as closely aligned as it could have been before welding. After a very thin skim coat of filler, a smidgen of primer and some paint it should be good to go though. After this I tried to fit the new evaporator/drier with trinary safety switch from Vintage Air. I hadn't anticipated a fitting incompatibility here, but nevertheless there it was.
You win some you lose some. I weighed all of the options here. I could have tried to return the drier assembly. If I had done that then I'd have need a factory style drier instead, and I'd still have had to buy a safety switch then plumb it inline somewhere in the system. After some waffling I decided to keep the new drier and try to find two straight -6 female O-ring pilot to -6 female O-ring pilot fittings instead (like trying to find hen's teeth and probably just as expensive if they even exist). This way the drier will sit in the stock location, use the stock hard lines and I won't need to change anything else or deal with trying to return a part that I had already opened and relieved the pressure from.