Question about putting factory air in a non air cab

[jasons]

I have a question about swapping cabs. Possibly going to put a 74 non air cab on a pickup with factory a/c. Will the components bolt up or are there differences in the dash and firewall?

[Keith Seymore]

My recollection is that the front of dash is different between A/C and non/AC. A/C has a larger rectangular opening and non A/C has a rectangle with a corner filled in, which would prevent putting A/C on a non A/C cab.

If you were to rework that localized area I think once you were past that you could make it work (ie, the inside dash panel is common, etc).

Somebody correct me if wrong -

K

[J Knight]

Im not sure about that specific area inside the cab but the fire wall is definately different between a/c and non a/c cabs. Its nothing but sheet metal, you can rework it buy cutting out the a/c firewall area from the a/c cab and welding it to the non a/c cab to make the factory a/c fit.

[tucsonjwt]

Here is what I think Keith is talking about. The big openings in the center and far right accommodate the large rectangular A/C duct openings with foam edging. One other hole on the upper right of the instrument cluster area is for the duct in that area, plus one duct at the lower left of the cluster at the end of the run of the duct under the dash.
If I were installing A/C from scratch on an non-A/C truck, I would check out the Vintage Air discussed on other posts here. If you bought all new parts for the stock installation it would cost more than the Vintage Air setup (looks like about $1350 for Vintage parts?). Of course, if you can salvage parts from an old A/C truck the cost would be less, but you will have unreliable used parts (and there are a lot of them - valves, switches, cables, links, actuators, etc.)

[J Knight]

X2 on vintage air, if its in you budget, thier kit is direct bolt on for a/c, non a/c, and smooth fire wall. IMO best bang for your buck. Ill be sending my factory a/c to file 13 in the spring and going vintage air.

[joe231]

the dashes are the same, you just need to modify the firewall and use the complete duct work from the ac truck. I converted my CCSB to AC by cutting out the firewall from a parts burb and welding it into the crew, wasn't hard, but you need to pretty much strip the cab. A no-weld method would be to use some body panel adhesive to put the new AC firewall piece in, then you wouldn't need to strip the cab. If you have the coin just go with a custom fit aftermarket AC, would be more efficient and less work.

[jasons]

Thanks for all the replies. That let's me know what I needed.