55 chevy pickup vintage air

[wilberweb]

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

[blue57]

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

[roger55]

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.

[Rednek13x]

you could always get a swamp cooler!

[wilberweb]

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

Thanks for the reply

[wilberweb]

Rednek13x
How does a swamp cooler work?

-Larry

[butchp]

Originally Posted by wilberweb

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

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

[roger55]

Here's my GenIV install:

Early mock-up:





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.













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:



I used stainless button head cap screws:



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.







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.



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

[_Ogre]

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

[OrrieG]

Originally Posted by _Ogre

though the stock heater is pretty worthless when you actually need heat in a cold climate

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.

[wilberweb]

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

[roger55]

Originally Posted by wilberweb

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

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

[wilberweb]

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

[wilberweb]

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

[roger55]

Originally Posted by wilberweb

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

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.

[roger55]

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.





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.

[butchp]

Originally Posted by roger55

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.

[IMG]http://www.hotrodders.com/gallery/data/3651/IMG_0330.JPG[/IMG



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.

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

[roger55]

Originally Posted by butchp

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

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.

[wilberweb]

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

-Larry

[Russell Ashley]

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.

[roger55]

Originally Posted by Russell Ashley

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.

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.

[wilberweb]

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

[roger55]

Originally Posted by wilberweb

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

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

[greystoke]

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

[roger55]

Originally Posted by greystoke

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

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

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

Here's my speakers: