55 chevy pickup vintage air
 

Hi, Guys I have a silly question on the vintage air for a 55 Chevy 3100 second series I'm working on.Do all the old pickup aftermarket air conditioner heating units do away with the glove box. Or is there an air conditioner unit that keeps the glove box intact.I suspect that's the trade off of having and air conditioner in thees old trucks.
Thanks for the input.

-Larry

Re: 55 chevy pickup vintage air
 

As far as i know they all take up the glove box space.

Re: 55 chevy pickup vintage air
 

I just installed the VA GenIV system in my '57.
They give you a small plastic glove box to put in place of the original. It makes a very small glove box but still usable. It's about 1 1/2" deep and flat in the back. You could put a wallet, phone and maybe a pair of gloves in it but that's about it. I'm going to put an elastic band of some type around it so the stuff wouldn't fall out when it's opened. It will work fine for what I need it for.

Re: 55 chevy pickup vintage air
 

you could always get a swamp cooler! :metal:

Re: 55 chevy pickup vintage air
 

blue57,
Thats what I thought. Too bad I like my glove box

Thanks for the reply

Re: 55 chevy pickup vintage air
 

Rednek13x
How does a swamp cooler work?

-Larry

Re: 55 chevy pickup vintage air
 

When you get it in please post pictures of install, I am using the gen IV also.

Re: 55 chevy pickup vintage air
 

Here's my GenIV install:

Early mock-up:

http://www.hotrodders.com/gallery/da...VA_Mock-up.jpg

http://www.hotrodders.com/gallery/da...A_Mock-up4.jpg

I did this mock-up just to see how everything would fit. The VA instructions say to do away with the passenger side fresh air vent. I wanted to figure out why they said that. The reason is that you can't mount the cable control in the stock location. I'm moving my fresh air vent control up in the dash where the original throttle and choke controls were. I don't need either of those anymore with my fuel injected engines. I love having the fresh air vents and wouldn't every consider eliminating them.

I opted to upgrade to the VA billet side vents. They are excellent and a tremendous improvement to the cheap plastic side vents that the kit comes with. I went with the billet bezel rings and chrome vent balls for these too.

http://www.hotrodders.com/gallery/da...1/IMG_5671.JPG

http://www.hotrodders.com/gallery/da...1/IMG_5653.JPG

http://www.hotrodders.com/gallery/da...1/IMG_5638.JPG

http://www.hotrodders.com/gallery/da...1/IMG_7949.JPG

http://www.hotrodders.com/gallery/da...1/IMG_8109.JPG

http://www.hotrodders.com/gallery/da...1/IMG_8079.JPG

Btw, I untaped the entire VA wiring harness and routed the wires different than they did. They way they do that is a little crazy. I make several little modifications to their wiring. I don't care for several of the things they tell you to do.

Here's where I installed the 2 VA relays:

http://www.hotrodders.com/gallery/da.../IMG_02535.JPG

I used stainless button head cap screws:

http://www.hotrodders.com/gallery/da.../IMG_02491.JPG

Here you can see the VA plastic glove box in place. So, you don't lose the glove box you just lose about 80% of the space it had.

http://www.hotrodders.com/gallery/da.../IMG_02544.JPG

http://www.hotrodders.com/gallery/da...1/IMG_8172.JPG

http://www.hotrodders.com/gallery/da...1/IMG_8176.JPG

As for under the hood, I did not use the VA compressor as I had that on my engine that I got to swap into the truck. I did use the VA condenser and drier. I installed a trinary switch but not from VA. I bought one from somewhere else because I liked the fan cut-on pressure better.

http://www.hotrodders.com/gallery/da...1/IMG_6833.JPG

I also did not use any A/C hoses from VA. I cut and crimped all the hoses myself.

http://www.hotrodders.com/gallery/da...1/IMG_8193.JPG

Re: 55 chevy pickup vintage air
 

any system that is semi hidden will take up most of the dash space
you could always go with the vintage air under dash cooler and keep your stock heater
though the stock heater is pretty worthless when you actually need heat in a cold climate

Re: 55 chevy pickup vintage air
 

Roger55,
Nice air! great looking truck.Where does this unit get its outside air from? I covered my factory vents, I'm going with speakers on the side kick panels.

-Larry

Re: 55 chevy pickup vintage air
 

I never had any problems with mine, even at minus zero temps. Every Chevy I have owned had heaters that warmed up fast and keep you wanting to crack the windows to cool off. Biggest issue with the TF ones is you have to remove the sheet metal and clean out all the leaves, etc. that come in the fresh air vents. It ends up clogging the core and slows the fan way down.

Larry I assume the driver side vent or rolled down window. Most modern systems have a inside recirc setting too. I eliminated the factory cables for my side vents and just made a looped pull rod.

Re: 55 chevy pickup vintage air
 

Hi Larry and thanks.
The VA (and the rest of the manufacturers as far as I know) have no fresh air capability and only recirculate inside air.
Roger

Re: 55 chevy pickup vintage air
 

OrrieG,
The under-dash air doesn't look as clean as the vintage air full heat and cool unit.
I will be OK with a small glove box.

-Larry

Re: 55 chevy pickup vintage air
 

roger55,
Wow that's too bad. I thought they would be able to get the air from the factory side plenum.Just drill a large hole up at the top section of the factory vents. That's my thoughts.

-Larry

Re: 55 chevy pickup vintage air
 

I guess it could be done if you were determined enough. It would be a little involved I would think.

My wife said yesterday she is going to take that glove box and put material in it with pleats so it has like 3 individual pockets. That would be great for holding a phone, ipod and wallet.

I tell you this thing blows a lot of air. I think it's going to work great. I will be getting it charged with the refrigerant very soon.

Update on the VA glove box
 

In preparation for mounting the glove box, I was perplexed how to hold it in. The VA instructions say to use the OEM screws. Yeah right, that won't work.

I came up with the idea to put aluminum rivet nuts into the glove box. I used 10-32 and backed them up with a washer for grabbing strength. I will use stainless 10-32 button socket cap screws. I mocked it up and it works great.

I'm now ready to have my wife cover the inside with vinyl that matches the interior. She's going to put some elastic straps in there too so it will hold a phone, ipod, wallet or whatever.

http://www.hotrodders.com/gallery/da...1/IMG_0330.JPG

http://www.hotrodders.com/gallery/da...1/IMG_0310.JPG

I also got my fresh air vents installed. I put the controls over the radio in the holes where the choke and throttle were originally.

http://www.hotrodders.com/gallery/da.../IMG_02922.JPG

http://www.hotrodders.com/gallery/da.../IMG_02684.JPG

Re: 55 chevy pickup vintage air
 

roger55,
Wow!! Looks great.
Good job. I like that color combo two tone dash. Awesome truck

-Larry

Re: Update on the VA glove box
 

Is that a stock type gas pedal can you tell me how or what type gas it is. also the brake pedal.

Re: Update on the VA glove box
 

The gas pedal is a Lokar floor-mount. I'm also using a Lokar TPI cable for it.

The brake pedal is from CPP. It's part of their firewall mounted master cylinder kit. I did have to make mods to that to make it better. You can see what I did in my build thread. See posts #127,242,279 and 416.

Re: 55 chevy pickup vintage air
 

That is looking very nice. I think you will be glad you kept the fresh air vents since the VA unit doesn't have an outside air provision.

Re: 55 chevy pickup vintage air
 

Thanks and I agree.

I never considered not keeping them. I have a '55 Bel Air too and put VA in that and kept the vents. When I'm moving along down the road, I tend to open it all up and let the hot air blow. It reminds me of a kid when we had no A/C in our cars. Went to Florida for a summer vacation in 1960 in the brand new Kingswood wagon my dad got. All the way with everything open. My mother hated it but the rest of us had no complaints at all.

Newer cars are sure a different story. No vent windows and you don't get near the volume of air with the setting on outside air as you did with the manual vents in the kick panels.

So it's the best of both worlds by having A/C and the vents. Sometimes you just have to have that A/C.

Re: 55 chevy pickup vintage air
 

roger55,
I am looking at putting kick panel speakers in my truck along with the vintage air.
I removed all my vent doors they where so rusted as you can see.My thought was to install a louvered aluminum rectangle style vent with a shut off switch so I can get air to the unit manually so I am able to shut it off if needed.It will be a clean look.I think both look great.

Nice job.

-Larry

Re: 55 chevy pickup vintage air
 

Great idea Larry. That should work well. I'd like to see how it comes out.

Re: 55 chevy pickup vintage air
 

I'd love to see a closer picture of that radio

Re: 55 chevy pickup vintage air
 

It's a RetroSound. It works nicely and sounds good.

http://www.retrosound.com/product-p/1955-59-apache.htm

Here's my speakers:

http://www.hotrodders.com/gallery/da...1/IMG_0223.JPG

Re: 55 chevy pickup vintage air
 

loosing the glove box was partly responsible for my decision to shave the dash on truk.
also didn't like how far down the aftermarket ac hung is why i made a 4'' dash fascia on the passenger side

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/n...ps4f374e84.jpg

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/n...ps0965865a.jpg

Re: 55 chevy pickup vintage air
 

I know it's been awhile. How did your VA work out? I'm thinking of using the R-4 pancake compressor. Move my fresh air vent cables where you did; what cables did you use?

Re: 55 chevy pickup vintage air
 

I guess you are asking me since I'm the one using an R4.

The A/C works great! Very cold and blows hard. Cools the cab down easy even on 100+ days.

I've read that generally R4 compressors are not liked due to poor longevity. We shall see. If I do find that that's true and it goes out early, I'll look at converting to a Sanden.

Re: 55 chevy pickup vintage air
 

I have a question about the glove box. I am currently building a 57 Chevy truck and putting in the same Vintage air system. I could hardly fit the evaporator up behind the glove box area and ended up bending the inside metal where the hinge bolts just to fit it into position. There is no way to have a glove box door fold down at all. Did you have this issue? I planned to simply weld the glove box door shut and smooth it out.

Re: 55 chevy pickup vintage air
 

In the instructions they tell you to modify the bar so it limits how far it will open. I did it that way with my '57. It doesn't make for a very good place to store much that way.
I did modify how the plastic box mounts to the dash. I used rivnuts in the plastic box.

http://www.hotrodders.com/gallery/da...m/IMG_0330.JPG

http://www.hotrodders.com/gallery/da...m/IMG_8176.JPG

Re: 55 chevy pickup vintage air
 

Roger,
I don’t know how I missed this thread before but it’s providing good info that I need now.

I’ve never used rivnuts and don’t know how they work. Are they like a pop rivet? No issue with cracking the plastic....or do they mount differently and it’s a non issue?

Also, why won’t the original glove box screws work? It’s not like we’re going to have to take this substitute glove box in and out much.

Last question - sorry to be such a pest. Do the vents from VA fit closely to the contour of the TF dash? I bought some that were for a ‘55-‘57 car but they didn’t seem to fit as closely a I would have liked so I returned them.

Re: 55 chevy pickup vintage air
 

Hi Dan.

Rivnuts, nutsert, rivet nuts are the names for them. Very handy for all kinds of things.
I use 10-32 size for most things but I have tools for some larger sizes as well.

Here's a cool little video that shows you how they work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2nB2-LvGSQ

A tool like the one in the video are pretty expensive. But there are some inexpensive ones out there too.

For the 10-32 size, I use this little tool most of the time:
https://mdmetric.com/prod/rivetnuttool/rivetnuttool.htm
Works great on steel rivet nuts. Some of the cheap ones like this one below are only good for the small aluminum ones:

https://cloudfront.zoro.com/product/...2FJIwfo5oy.JPG

I bought a couple of these tools not long ago but haven't used them yet. They are for larger sizes and work with steel:

http://www.lemtools.com/images/zoom/l722.jpg

The rivet nuts made an improvement to the way the glove box fastens in but you can do it the way VA says to. Since I have the tools for using rivet nuts, I use them whenever I think they make things better or easier.

I am totally happy with the way the upgraded VA side vents fit the dash. They are expensive but they don't disappoint in any way.

Re: 55 chevy pickup vintage air
 

Thanks Roger,
I agree on liking to do things “right” - Not that the VA way is “wrong”, just that it can be done better. You had no issue with the plastic cracking? That would BUG me if it did. I totally agree with lining the plastic box with some felt or upholstery material. Anything to make it look less cheap.

Thanks for the links too. I will buy a decent tool. I don’t mind inexpensive tools if I don’t use them that much. But I DO mind cheap crap tools that’ll break when you need them.

Re: 55 chevy pickup vintage air
 

You are welcome Dan.

Here's a good place to buy the steel 10-31 rivet nuts:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Rivet-nuts-...sAAOSwlndZFOSw

I've probably set a few hundred of those with this little tool:
https://mdmetric.com/prod/rivetnuttool/square02.jpg
If you get this one, practice on something with it first to figure it out. You don't let it pull all the way like it looks on the right. You don't need to pull it that far to set the nutsert.

This size is super good for securing fuel lines and electrical wires to the frame too using insulated ring clamps.

I use stainless 10-32 socket cap screws and sometimes the use button head.
https://www.albanycountyfasteners.co...rews-s/286.htm

No problem with the plastic cracking. It's pretty stout plastic. Just drill the holes and set the rivet nuts.

I thought about lining the plastic but you really can't see into the box that well when the door won't open very far. It would be nicer just to have some sort of pocket or clip to hold papers in place. Haven't done that yet though. The way it is now, the papers kind of fall forward against the door when you open it. You will see once you get yours installed.

Re: 55 chevy pickup vintage air
 

Thanks again. I wondered if the globe box door would open all the way anymore?