1972 Chevy p/u NewType Build

[knomadd]

I don't know about the thread either, but you can do the install and just not attach a belt to the compressor. I "believe" (read: I don't really know) that you can still install the evaporator under the dash and all the wiring without installing the compressor and condenser. IIRC, there's only 1 wire to the compressor and nothing else for the A/C hardware. I'm not sure if that 1 wire will cause the system to not function, which is why I simply suggested to not install the belt.

[NewType72]

That all sounds pretty good to me, then again I have the updated 91 serpentine belt system so I shouldn't have to worry bout the electronic issues or belts. I'm hoping this is pretty plug and play and maybe I can have heat by tmrw afternoon or something. I did find a full thread but it's definetly with an older system so in not sure how much would transfer over to mine.

http://www.67-72chevytrucks.com/vboa...d.php?t=249479

[NewType72]

Alright so this will be known as my mini write-up of my heater only installation of my VIntage Air Gen IV Surefit system. My truck was a base model so it only came with the heater box when I got it, so among my plans to make this truck a faux Cheyenne super I have put installing a full A/C system upon them. So without further a-do here goes my install. Also everything I do for this will be further shown in updated pictures through this album http://s1111.photobucket.com/user/Dy...?sort=3&page=1

Starting in July of this year when I yanked my tired 350 out for a crate motor, I pulled my heater box from the engine bay side and blocked up the holes it left with the two templates from my kit. (Two nuts on the studs from the inner box to hold to hold the large flat plate and one bolt with a bar on the backside for the circular hole) I pulled my box without removing my inner fender as I'm stubborn about removing and reinstalling things that don't absolutely have to be pulled. So a few tips in the swear jar later out comes the forward portion of the box with my pops help. We routed my heater hose from the intake back to the water pump so that I could drive for the time being. (5/8 to the larger 3/4 fitting on the pump ran just fine) I left the inner box in for cosmetic purposes and had no issue with its tagging along during my few months of daily travel. I kept it at this point since the motor swap drained my funds and paying off the vintage air was more important.

[NewType72]

Here comes the cold front.. Oh boy that hit like a ton of frozen bricks to the face this past week along with driving in the pouring down rain having to wipe the inside of my windshield every 50 yards during the 4 mile trip home. (I know it's a far commute to work right?) Enough was enough so I busted out the kit and got those wrenches turning on the inner box and controller, pulling this fairly quick with the two studs that were left. Viola I have two giant holes in my firewall now which for some reason made my motor much louder than usual for that day.. Hmm anyway I needed a factory a/c controller since that's for the kit and what it requires for the complete install. Thinking back I had one in my deluxe cab that I bought a while back now, so I wouldn't have to buy a 125$+ controller and wait a week on the arrival. (Convenient right?) That's what I thought until I found that my upper switch/arm was broken before removal from the dash. Darn pot metal just never holds up but hey we can fix it right? Made a quick stop by my work on Saturday and talked to my mechanical minded coworker on what we could do to fix this problem. Brazing would be too harsh and would be to the point of disintegrating so that lead us to only one conclusion which was to build an angle bracket and screw them together as one to give its working nature back.




I started with an electrical box plate which is about .065 or a 1/16 thick, cutting a piece about .400 wide and 1.400 long for my specific broken angle pictures below. I bent it gently in a vice and placed it until it matched up well enough to trim to fit. After rounding the harsh edges I drilled two .159 holes in the angled and flat pieces of the armature. Placing my angled metal piece up I sharpied black marks for the hole locations and repeated the process with two .120 holes for the particular sheet metal screws I had. I used these dual sizes for the particular screws I had so that it would thread easily into the actual arm and then grip tightly to the angled metal I placed underneath of it. I also ground the large flat edging around the screws so that they could fit in without interfering in the angled wall on the arm as seen in the pictures. These results would vary drastically from different applications but so far this fix has worked flawlessly and is very smooth as a new controller would be. Mcquyver has nothing on redneck ingenuity

[NewType72]

I went ahead and took the time now to completely clean up the mid section and pass. side under dash wire maze tackling many harnesses for my radio, alarm, and Blazer courtesy lights so that they would have not interference what so ever with their new buddies joining the fun under the dash.




Moving on accomplished with my fix I proceeded to clean up the controller by degreasing the entire body of it and removing the backing plate so it could respray the black background, sanding off the edges to restore the once polished look of the raised rectangles on the surface, to give back its factory look. Polishing the metal and replacing the old lens with the new vintage air replacement I see a lot of potential showing its beauty in an old controller. I proceeded by installing the clear plastic cable converter assm. to their rightful positions trimming the black loops as per the instructions tell me and reusing the original screws to bolt them in place with the new conv. clamps. The new kit completely eliminates those junky heavy cables and runs everything in its "fly by wire" harness connection to an ECU mounted on top of the Evaporator box. It may take a little time but it's absolutely easy as long as you read through the instructions thoroughly for the placement of the harness and its connections. Completing this task outside of the truck I zip tied the harness wires securely routing them towards the box so that I can now place it inside the dash by putting the controls on their face atop the carpeting in my truck and backing them up into its spot being sure to watch the plastic cable conv. assm. so as to not bind them in the process, rotating the face up and into its proper slot I added its two bolts underneath and she's in! Very simple and an easy task to tackle inside on the kitchen table.

[NewType72]

Returning my attention fully to the install of the box I began with drilling the six holes around the perimeter of the template on the firewall. 6 3/16 holes are required to install the #14 x 3/4 sheet metal screws here but make sure to read ahead and also check the picture for there will be two 9/32 holes across from each other that you will need to bolt the evaporator box with bracket to the firewall. Moving back inside the house I began the building of the evaporator installing the rear bracket first with four simple bolts, the hard lines were next and being sure to open the separate package and apply the oil necessary for the o-rings. Be double sure to apply your press tape around the fittings at this time as it's impossible once inside the cab. Box is complete for now so I prepared the cab for all necessities such as two 2x4's my two 1/4-20 hex bolts and nut needed to bolt the box up. Make sure that you don't have the front bracket bolted on already or else you will have a hard time rolling this box up into place. I had to pull back my carpet as much as possible for this task after that I took the box and placed it gently on its back then getting my gripping correct I rolled it up into place following the floor to the firewall and easing the hard lines into the four allotted holes in the template. Once there I took the first wooden 2x4 as well as a 1/4 ratchet extension and braced them between the face of the box and the backside of the glove box lower lip, this will steady the box so you can apply the second 2x4 underneath and get the bracket holes to line up with the two 9/32 holes from the template. The top bolt will thread into the bracket at upper left corner of the template from the engine bay side. I used an awl/small screwdriver to negotiate the lower hole into position so that I could install the lower right bolt. Here's the tricky part if you’re on your own here, I had to call upon my redneck ingenuity to brace the box and backside nut from the inside if the cab using a can of peaches to wedge my ratchet up so that I could tighten the bolt securely. Once finished here I removed my 2x4's and viola she's sitting in by herself now. Continuing here I placed my front bracket on and found my level and made sure the whole box as level as could be, you may need to loosen the firewall bolts a bit for this but it should be fairly close. Once level mark you front bracket holes to uppermost portion of the inside of the dash, (kickback piece of the under cowl area) you should be able to drill two quick 3/16 holes here then screw in your sheet metal screws and your box is securely mounted. From here you can mark your drain hole and 1" or more below the entire box and as straight as possible from the outlet at the bottom of the box. It took some maneuvering but I got my bulky cord drill in there to drill a pilot hole and the angled slope of the floor board so that I could use a step drill to get the full 5/8's hole drilled for the elbow and hose. Probably a harder way to tackle this task with my inner fender still attached but it went by fairly easy. This should conclude this portion of the box install.

[Ol Blue K20]

Looks good Dylan, heat is kinda important right now, keep it up your almost done. But one thing I noticed....how many colors has your truck been? I see blue, yellow and it's current red..

[NewType72]

Originally Posted by Ol Blue K20

Looks good Dylan, heat is kinda important right now, keep it up your almost done. But one thing I noticed....how many colors has your truck been? I see blue, yellow and it's current red..

Yup almost there. you noticed that eh? The blue on the floorboard was its factory color that the bed and fenders had as well so that's certain, then they coated it in that god awful yellow it was, then we did black over the cab and new front clip, and finally red and white. She's a mash up

P.s. Do you need my address for my present this month?

[Ol Blue K20]

Originally Posted by NewType72

Yup almost there. you noticed that eh? The blue on the floorboard was its factory color that the bed and fenders had as well so that's certain, then they coated it in that god awful yellow it was, then we did black over the cab and new front clip, and finally red and white. She's a mash up

P.s. Do you need my address for my present this month?

[NewType72]

With the box installed you can begin running your heater hoses and since I only have defrosters at this point then I will be taking the one 36" smaller hose and cutting 12" out of it to rout the smaller one and using the other 24" to rout to the drivers side. Here I have to rant a bit as I feel literally cut short that Vintage Air would send that absolute minimum instead of possibly and extra two inches or more total to give you a little more ease with the hose being so tight a little 1" slack would help a ton but I guess we could go to home depot if we really wanted it but I left mine be. Anyway grab your factory defroster vents, "s" clips, and the appropriate adapters to A. reach and B. fit the small hose vs. the factory large tubing and C. look at the directions a bit to figure out exactly how to run the clips so that you get the tightest fit possible. I ran my driver side tubing just over the top of the A/C controller and straight up once clear of any wiring. The pass. side tubing is pretty self explanatory just twist the tubing so that it hugs towards the firewall instead of towards the glove box since you'll have a glove box insert to squeeze in later.



Alright so up next is everyone's favorite part of any build or project.. Wiring!! Woo well I went ahead and plugged the A/C controller into the right side of the ECU underneath the front bracket of the evaporator. Most of this setup was just to make sure everything worked properly from the get-go so I laid out the majority of the harness and began my routing of where the wires need to go. Violet headed towards my fuse box to plug in to a key-on hot fuse that I used a clip on splice that I picked up from radioshack same as what I used on my new headlights a year ago since this was a proven method and my fuse block is pretty full.. Moving on I left the heater and A/C relays close to the box unmounted for now as well as the 30 amp circuit breaker. (the breaker is suggested to be mounted in the engine bay as close to the battery as possible but for now its workable) I began feeding green,blue,red, and two white grounds through the 3/8ths hole in the firewall plate giving them access to their respective areas like the green one for the heater control valve, blue for A/C compressor in the future, white grounds to the chassis directly (crimped both in the larger connector included in kit) and final red directly to the battery terminal with my two other wires for my audio and f**d starter solenoid. (eventually I will have to find a cleaner setup for all this wiring mess but for now everything is working fine and the A/C install will come next month so no rush to cut wires short just yet)






With the wiring in it's respective places I moved to routing the new 3/4 and 5/8 heater hoses to the water pump and intake respectively. I had Oreilly's cut me 4 (3/4 hose) and 3ft (5/8 hose) in length just to be sure I had plenty if I hit any speed bumps but everything went perfect and couple extra dollars for security and one less trip is worth it. The 5/8 hose is run off the lowest hard line outlet from the evaporator box I went 3 inches out and cut the line installing the heater control valve (HCV) just as the picture and arrow shows for the correct flow. For me this is where I finally pulled my old "u-turn" hose carefully since it will spew coolant all over if you aren't slow about it. removing the old hose I installed the rest of the 5/8 hose to the other end of the HCV as well as the 3/4 to the hardline just above that. Now here is where your routing comes into play, conveniently I can run my hose in sync with each other and have the 3/4 dive over top to the pump below after the 5/8 reaches the intake outlet for a nice clean look. Went ahead and installed hose clamps nice and snug at this point.



Alright time to hook some wires up. Grounds are set to my chassis near the radiator support, red power is hooked to my battery, a separate included 2ft ground wire is run from the chassis to the HCV male end (motor side), green wire to the final male end of the HCV (fender side), blue wire is curled and tied for time being until A/C is ready. Looks like under hood is good to go now back inside the cab. Go ahead and plug in the main harness plug to the ECU and the violet wire to your fuse box for good. Locate your gray "programming wire" and find the closest metal area that you may ground properly to with the short ground wire included specifically for the programming of the high and low of the unit. Here you must ABSOLUTELY read the instructions as it says so that your unit is properly programmed and usable. Just for the sake of everything make sure all your wires are properly connected and to their respective places, once done turn your key to the on position and plug in the programming wire with your slider levers in proper position. Slide them all right to set the "high" settings allowing time for it to learn this then run them back to the left for your "low/off" settings, allow time again then unplug and you're good to go.



Go ahead and start the truck and let her warm up being sure to check everything newly installed for leaks,shorts, and especially fires. (extinguisher and water bucket would be really smart right here ) If you followed the instructions all the way through and somehow got through my descriptions of this super easy install then you should be getting some nice warm air coming up through your vents and two lower outlets on the evaporator box.

[NewType72]

Yeah I definitely need a little block for all these to go to especially my ground in the chassis they just look hokey and well my power as well the separate wires plus my large power wire yeah I'm asking for a fire.

[NewType72]

Final installation

Alright time for wire cleanup and install of new inner glovebox panel and your factory GB door. (This is where you'll want to grab plenty of small and medium sized zip ties unless you have cleaner ideas for your wire running if so please share for us to try) I went ahead and began with the immediate harnesses coming from the firewall so your red, white, green, & blue wires, pulled them as taught as I could through the firewall hole and wrapped the securely near the top of my carpet line for now until I decide a mounting position for the breaker and relays. Continuing back through the harness I bundled the relays close by and hid them behind the left portion of the evaporator box. This left me with two thick wiring wraps, one to the main plug for the ECU and the other to my blower fan, I went ahead and zip tied these together and ran them on the lowest portion of the backside of the dash as this is a nice hideaway channel area for wiring like this and my blazer courtesy lights. Tucked nicely away depending on your setup this should leave you fairly well off when looking underneath your dash.



Moving on I did quick work with the a/c heater controller harness by folding the wrapping back how it was shipped with just enough slack to reach without anything being too tight to cause a break during driving. The final portion will involve running your violet wire all the way to the fuse box but for me this was simple as with my configuration I had the perfect length to follow the two wrapped wiring harness to the dash then I followed my courtesy light harness all the way across the bottom of my dash to the driver side fuse box area for a nice clean plug in. I will however need to seriously attack this wiring spaghetti that my alarm installers left me, good lord what a mess they did but that's what you get with trade work. (sorry dad your intentions were well thought just a bad installer that executed them)





Ah that looks much better now doesn't it? Awesome well all that's left for now was to install the new, but extremely small, inner glovebox panel. You'll need to bring back your original four door hinge screws and the four extras that go on the perimeter if you had them before. You'll start with pulling the top latch screws out and sliding the latch off the metal there so that you can easily push in your new inner panel. I started by angling it vertically towards the middle of the dash lettin it clear the protruding tab at the top before bringing in the other side and popping it in and over the the lip at the top as well as the furthest edge of the passenger side tab, you can get somewhat aggressive with the inner panel but do remember your harness plug ins are directly behind it and damage could occur upon installation. Go ahead an pop the panel under neath the lower lip and line up the predrilled holes as best as possible, there should be eight perimeter holes for the panel itself and then two for your latch at the top that has a cutout on the panel as well as a cutout for your glovebox light which is very handy at night in these dark cabs. Go ahead and reinstall your latch hand tight so that you can align the door correctly once you've done the same at the bottom installing the four screws on the hinge and going through the plastic panel. At this point I went ahead and aligned my door perfectly then installed the final four perimeter screws only having to make a new hole for the left side as it didn't line up for me. Everything should be nice and snug and will give you a nice completed install, I was sure to check everything over for any visible hanging wires or tight fits and everything seemed to clear just fine.






With half of my personal kit complete I would have to rate this kit very high as everything was quite easy to assemble and understand since the directions were correct the entire way through and didn't leave you scratching your head more than installing the pieces. Vintage air has really perfected this setup and I'm sure they are only getting better over the years so definitely and A+ to them on the craftsmanship, R&D, and drive to continuously put out excellent kits like these for us car/truck enthusiasts. Hope everyone has enjoyed this quick run through and I haven't left any of you scratching your heads if so just holler at me and I'll be sure to edit it on the posts. I'm planning to tackle the a/c portion once I have the money for a new GM compressor, thinking of a ext.cab 90's model for my belt setup since it's correct and should give me plenty of oomph for the tiny cab space to freeze me out in the summer. The heater already makes me sweat and has worked flawlessly from the get go an I couldn't be happier with this product!

[Ol Blue K20]

Looks good...the glove box sure got small though

[NewType72]

Originally Posted by Ol Blue K20

Looks good...the glove box sure got small though

It sure did dale but honestly I don't mind since my registration and insurance card goes in there and I have my center console for anything else I need

[shawno72]

Nice work Dylan.

[NewType72]

Originally Posted by shawno72

Nice work Dylan.

Thanks Shawn. It was a lot of fun and I'm definitely reaping the rewards

[knomadd]

Originally Posted by NewType72

It sure did dale but honestly I don't mind since my registration and insurance card goes in there and I have my center console for anything else I need

Lucky. I don't have a center console, so I won't have storage when I install mine.

It looks good though. Nice job.

[NewType72]

Originally Posted by knomadd

Lucky. I don't have a center console, so I won't have storage when I install mine.

It looks good though. Nice job.

Knomadd, thank you very much my pops said he was pretty proud of me to do it all by myself so I must be doing something right.. Or he's very ill back on subject these classic consoles are really nice you should consider getting one most of the magazines sell them but here is a picture of mine and also the manufacturers page. http://www.classicconsoles.com/

[TchncnDen]

Nice write up!

[NewType72]

Originally Posted by TchncnDen

Nice write up!

Thanks man! I remember reading your budget build a lot last year glad to see how well it worked out for ya. Any updates since this spring?

[TchncnDen]

I haven't done anything with that truck other than drive, but I had to get another 4wd for snow season out here as that truck is Terrible in the snow. I also tried selling it on ebay with no luck, I'll try again come spring. Check my sig below for another truck I started on.

[NewType72]

Originally Posted by TchncnDen

I haven't done anything with that truck other than drive, but I had to get another 4wd for snow season out here as that truck is Terrible in the snow. I also tried selling it on ebay with no luck, I'll try again come spring. Check my sig below for another truck I started on.

Bummer on the eBay thing but I'll be sure to read up on the other pickup as soon as I get some time. Today is my 21st bday so I don't plan on being home

Hey Dale is my present on its way? no worries if not

[knomadd]

Well Happy Birthday Dylan! Have fun, and be sure the get a DD, or call a cab. We want to make sure you finish your A/C install.

[Ol Blue K20]

OMG!!!Happy Birthday Dylan!! Nope not on the way, I'll get a batch of "pie" made up soon, I've been working 7/12's for a couple weeks and a couple more to go...P.S. no barfing!!!

[NewType72]

Originally Posted by knomadd

Well Happy Birthday Dylan! Have fun, and be sure the get a DD, or call a cab. We want to make sure you finish your A/C install.

You can guarantee I will be sticking around much longer than just finishing my a/c install and thank you knomadd