I didn't even do new hoses...being broke at the time (and wanting to put money towards a Vintage Air or other aftermarket setup instead of this leaky 34 year old stuff!) I just did the POA adjustment, pulled what little R12 was left, pulled down a decent vacuum (was using OLD gauges, which were probably leaking a bit) and filled it up - first with stop leak
and then a few cans of 134a.
Is it as cold as the R12 was on a full charge? No.
Does it stay cold at idle on a hot day? Definitely not.
But is it effective? Yes. It only starts to warm up if I haven't been moving for quite a while. It's effective, and amazingly, it has yet (well, as of when my 700R4 blew) to leak out noticably. A ghetto conversion like this, by all means, should have failed miserably...but it hasn't.
