Air Conditioning by Vintage Air - Air And Graces

Vintage Air offers different designs of bulkhead fittings, and while the inline version would have fit perfectly on a raised section of the firewall with rounded ends that looked made for the job, the A/C unit bolts up right behind it, leaving no space to connect the fittings inside the car.

With the mock-up unit still in place, and before I filled and painted the firewall, I decided to mount the bulkhead fitting on a plate over the old fresh air vent hole. There was enough room behind it to install the fittings and I figured the removable plate would make access easier in the future.

Hmm ... with the firewall painted and the A/C unit in place, it was apparent that the heater pipes exited the unit in exactly the same place I'd planned the bulkhead fitting to mount. At least I didn't have to weld up the holes and re-paint!

Something I'd thought about doing was to run the A/C and heater hoses through the original fresh air tubing along the inner front fender, so after a rethink I decided to mount the bulkhead fitting in this length of tube that originally held the fresh air door.

However, I couldn't simply weld a plate over the end of the tube, for two reasons. Most importantly, I'd never be able to tighten the nuts on the A/C and heater hoses, and secondly I wanted to be able to fit the fresh air tube in a factory-like manner. So I cut 1 1/4 inches from the second, now redundant, tube, slid it to slide inside the first tube, and welded a plate over that.

This gave me a 1 1/4-inch-deep "cap" that I could mount the bulkhead fitting to. Using the template provided in the packaging, I center punched the 7/8-inch holes before cutting them out with a holesaw.

With the "cap" slid inside the tube that bolts to the firewall, this is what it looks like from the backside ...

And here's the front. I'll add three set screws to hold the cap in place, and the stock rubber sleeve will join the firewall tube to the fresh air tube, disguising what's now inside. Of course you'll see the hoses when they exit the tube to attach to the compressor, manifold, and water pump, but it'll keep the inner fender tidy. I may even run the front wiring harness through here too.

Though the A/C unit is clearly visible under the right side of the dashboard, my aim is to retain the vintage look of the interior, and as such I didn't want modern A/C switches or knobs under or in the dash. A conversation with Vintage Air's Rick Love revealed that as my original heater controls used three cables, there was a chance I could use one of his company's conversion kits to adapt my controls.

Figuring nothing ventured meant nothing gained, I tore into my heater controls. The captive cable adjusters (arrowed) required grinding off to remove them.

Once the adjusters are removed, the three control arms look like this, with just a simple hole in the ends.

One of the cable clamps also required cutting as it was originally a single piece, and the new slide pot assembly would not fit.

The actual control panel may be different but the principle and operation is the same, so I used Vintage Air's '61-62 Impala control panel conversion kit, which includes everything needed, as well as instructions. For once I actually read them!

Here's the modified control panel, the three slide pot assemblies, or cable converters, supplied in the kit, clamps, and new set screws.

I welded studs in place of the captive cable adjusters, to which the rods in the slide pot assemblies could now attach. As can be seen in the previous picture, the rods offer plenty of adjustment, though I was able to use the first hole and trim the remainder. Vintage Air advises that there should be a maximum of 1/8 inch between the end of the plastic cable converter housing and the flat part of the rod when the lever is at its innermost position.

Here's the completed conversion. Note each cable converter is at a different position in its clamp. This offers adjustment for that 1/8-inch gap.

With all three cable converters in place, the wiring harness was attached. This is as simple as attaching a plug into each one and securing them with cable ties. The ends of the cable converters are stepped to ensure the ties can't work loose.

My control panel had seen better days, and I had to grind the ends off the mounting bolts to remove it, so these were drilled out and new 3/16-inch bolts welded in their place, before the whole mechanism was cleaned, hit with a Scotch-Brite pad on a mini-grinder, and treated to the finest rattle can satin black from my local hardware store.

With the nice new white harness protected until I clean and paint both sides of the dash, here's the control panel back in place. I still have to repaint the lettering (that'll take a steady hand!) and may even move the panel into a custom mount in the dash itself as I'm not too keen on those cable converters being visible under the dash. Of course in an Impala they'd be behind the dash.

Here's where we leave it for this installment, with the control panel in, the A/C unit in, and the bulkhead fitting sorted. Next time we'll plumb and wire the heat, air, and cooling systems.