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Vintage Air install in 71-74 Javelin

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Mopar_guy View Drop Down
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    Posted: Apr/27/2019 at 11:24pm
I thought I would share the install that I did on my car and Wooster Kevin has done on his. Most of this is based on the experience I've garnered over the past 6+ years since I've put mine in.
My install was a retrofit done with the engine in it while his was done when the car was being restored so everything was open. One difference being where the bulkhead connector is on the firewall. Mine is close to where the original heater hoses came thru while his further to the right coming out in the wheel well. That allowed the hoses to be mostly hidden and the engine compartment to be kept much cleaner looking. I'll keep adding to this as I remember more details or answer questions. Hopefully it will give some of you ideas on how to do this yourself.

Javelin A/C Install parts list (partial)

Gen II ComPac - Heat Cool and Defrost - 68000-VUZ-A
Base Model Horizontal 4-Lever Control Panel - 49110-SHQ
Sanden SD 709 Compressor Double V-groove pulley Standard Finish - 04709-VUA
Horizontal SuperFlow Condenser 14 IN. tall x 24 IN - 03263-VUC
Louver for 2.5-Inch Hose 3.875-Inch x 2-Inch All Black - 49327-VUL are what I used w/o factory A/C. Will need 2.5" duct hose.
I used a 4-Way Diamond Bulkhead Plate for AC and Heater since it was in the engine compartment but others could be used.
A hose and drier kit depending upon what they want to use. I use a trianry switch with electric fans.
They will need to find 3 groove pulleys for the crank and water pump.
They will need a York to Sanden adapter plate.
They will need to upgrade the alternator if they use electric fans. They will need to use a double pulley on the alternator so that you have double belts.
Ford Contour fans fit the Javelin radiators perfectly.

I highly recommend using a Sanden SD 709 7 cylinder compressor (04709-VUA) to avoid the possibility of having harmonics in your lines. It happened to me using the 5 cylinder compressor on the 304 that use to be in the car. At times there would be a moaning noise in the A/C  lines and a guy from Vintage Air confirmed that was what is was and the only real fix was to switch compressors.

If anybody is interested in buying any Vintage Air, I have a VERY good dealer to work with and I always recommend him. He's worked several guys on here now doing this. I doubt you'll beat his price too. Call Andy at A Plus Rod and Custom. Tell him Keith sent you. The guy with the Hemi Javelin. Big smile https://www.aplusrodandkustom.com/

Something that you must understand if you're going to do this, you need to spend time and money to insulate your car as well. The reason is because this unit is to small for the size of the car and if you push it hard, the evaporator core can freeze up. It's happened to me several times. Insulating the car and tinting the windows helps the unit keep the car cool inside even while driving across the desert in 100° + temps.

Here's a few of the insulating materials I used on my car and Kevin has as well as you can see in some of the pictures below.
DEI Floor & Tunnel Shield II as a radiant barrier.
Boom Mat Under Carpet Lite. I have a ton of this in my car. This stuff is amazing on what can do for only a 1/2" thick. http://designengineering.com/under-carpet-lite-sound-absorbtion-insulation/
You can use this stuff in many places including above your headliner for a cooler, quieter car.

The pictures below are a mix of my install and Kevin's install. Since there's no windshield in Kevin's car yet, it made it easy to photograph.

Here are pictures of the unit installed behind the dash. It's tight but it fits.






Note that we installed a support bar across the front of the unit with 2 straps holding it up to the firewall. The rear hanger is a couple of pictures down.





Here is we installed the rear hanger.



Here is Kevin's bulkhead connector. It's about 4" to the right than mine is.



This picture shows how nice the factory defroster duct fits right over the defroster outlets on the unit. I put some foam around the bottom of the duct to fill some of the gap but it's not really needed as the air will push upwards. The defrost works well on a dew covered or foggy window!



Now the unit is mounted into the car, you'll need to block off the hole in the cowl. What I came up with was to install a plate with a plastic blast gate in it so I could still have a passenger side floor vent. A blast gate is for a dust collection system. I used a 4" if I remember right and bonded it to an aluminum plate as shown below.


I put a screw in the sliding door part of it and hooked my factory passenger side floor vent cable to it. I used the support strap to hold it with the original cable clip as well.



Here's how I route the ducting.





With only 3 outlets for the dash on the unit and 4 louvers on the dash, I used a Y from the center outlet to feed the 2 center louvers.



Here are some pictures of the way we routed the lines on Kevin's car.











Here's a picture of mine back when I put it in. You can see where the bulkhead connector is.



When Kevin was doing all the metal work on his car, he cut out the section where the holes for the fan motor and heater hoses came thru and welded new metal in there. Here's how I covered that section with the engine still in the car. I cut out the ribbed area so the firewall was smooth. I cut a panel to cover the whole area and used body panel adheasive to bond it to the firewall. Seam sealed and painted it.





I'll get some pictures of how I mounted the louvers in the dash and the part numbers for them.

Here's the louvers in my dash pad.










I used a Vintage Air 49327-VUL louver in all 4 locations. My dash face didn't have air so I cut the opening in and snapped the louver in. On the pad I had to trim something out a little and these fit right in but wouldn't stay so I used some clear silicone to hold them in as you can see. It was really easy to do. If your dash pad doesn't have air, I don't see why you couldn't cut the openings and pop the louvers in by themselves.

The last thing is the control head. I used the standard slider type since resembles the original but I didn't like the look of it being on top of the filler plate. I had a filler plate made with all the same slots as the control head had under the sticker. I drilled and tapped the control head and mounted it to the backside of filler plate and installed a new sticker on it. Now it looks factory looking. Here's some pictures.









And the finished product.



I have a friend that I sent the CAD drawing to who has a CNC plasma table and he cut some more of them out for me. We put one in Wooster Kevin's car. If someone is interested in doing this, pm me if you're interested in buying one of these filler plates.

Here's a few pictures of the compressor on the 304 I had.







I think I covered all the bases. This is how I did it but if you can improve on it, please post it. If you have any questions, post them, or pm me.



Edited by Mopar_guy - Nov/26/2020 at 1:00pm

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ajgiii Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May/01/2019 at 3:34pm
Hi Mopar Guy,
VERY nice photography and labeling. Thank you for sharing your experience. New Vintage Air (VA) HVAC was supposed to be my project for last year....

I hope you won't mind answering some questions. 
1.  What was your deciding factor in choosing the ComPac II unit?  It does have lower cooling capacity, and your recommend for insulating is a good one.
2.  What dash louvers did you use? If the AMC factory ones, how did you transition from the round duct to the rectangle openings?
3.  Did the VA defroster vents not fit at all between the dash and windshield? Or, why did you stay with the AMC defroster vents?
4. Why did you decide to use the VA ducts and not the factory AMC ducts?
b/r
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mopar_guy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May/01/2019 at 5:32pm
Originally posted by ajgiii ajgiii wrote:

Hi Mopar Guy,
VERY nice photography and labeling. Thank you for sharing your experience. New Vintage Air (VA) HVAC was supposed to be my project for last year....

I hope you won't mind answering some questions. 
1.  What was your deciding factor in choosing the ComPac II unit?  It does have lower cooling capacity, and your recommend for insulating is a good one.
2.  What dash louvers did you use? If the AMC factory ones, how did you transition from the round duct to the rectangle openings?
3.  Did the VA defroster vents not fit at all between the dash and windshield? Or, why did you stay with the AMC defroster vents?
4. Why did you decide to use the VA ducts and not the factory AMC ducts?
b/r
John

Thanks John. I hope you find it useful. No I don't mind so here's your answers. Smile
1 - Because it fits behind the dash! And the outlet placement works well. When I was at Vintage Air's factory a couple of years ago, it drew quite a crowd because nobody thought there any of the units would fit behind a dash like that. It even got videoed inside and out. I got a lot of compliments from the crew there.
2 - I will get the part numbers and post pictures on how I put the louvers in.
3 - I didn't have them to try but the factory one fits perfect and works fine. Wink
4 - My car didn't have air to begin with and the pad with air I had was missing the louvers. I couldn't find any so I had to figure another way to do it. I also didn't have any of the duct work.

If you, or anybody else is interested in buying any Vintage Air, I have a VERY good dealer to work with and I always recommend him. I doubt you'll beat his price too. Call Andy at A Plus Rod and Custom. Tell him Keith sent you. The guy with the Javelin. Big smile https://www.aplusrodandkustom.com/



Edited by Mopar_guy - Nov/26/2020 at 12:55pm

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ajgiii Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May/01/2019 at 6:07pm
Hi Keith,
Thank you! 
Yes, the VA folks weren't sure what would fit when I called them last spring. I'm not sure if they told me, or I read it somewhere...the Prestone Javelin uses the big VA HVAC unit.

The AMC fan box is almost the same size as the VA smaller unit, so it would seem there'd be lots of room. My measurements indicate the larger VA units would fit.

My car didn't have AC, either, but my dash does, and I have the original ducts, and had the interior system in when I decided to change my mind and go after market, new, and latest technology.

From one of your photos, it appears you might have aftermarket front suspension....might it be from Control Freak?  I have such, though I haven't yet driven it.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mopar_guy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May/01/2019 at 7:41pm
What unit are you talking about? There's maybe an inch between the dash support and the heater box on this so I'm not sure what bigger unit would fit.
That picture of the black car is Wooster Kevin's car and he has the Control Freaks coilover conversion in it. His build thread is here http://theamcforum.com/forum/untouchable-the-lakeville-javelin_topic91622.html 
My car has a G3 Hemi in it with a Fatman weld in IFS. My swap is here. http://theamcforum.com/forum/hemilina_topic95889.html

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mopar_guy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May/03/2019 at 2:32pm
I added to my original post with more pictures and information.



Edited by Mopar_guy - May/03/2019 at 2:36pm

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Brad Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May/04/2019 at 1:58pm
Thanks for the write up. I'm planning A/C at some point. This will be very helpful! 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote farna Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jun/03/2019 at 6:24am
That's a really neat installation and great photos Mopar_guy!! I'm sure many will appreciate this well documented thread.

Southern Air has some units that are packaged a little differently than Vintage Air and may be a better fit in some cases. Their MaxiCooler III and Superfrost units are really good. In some cases it's what fits over everything else! The dimensions of the Southern Air cases are a bit different from Vintage Aire, one of their larger units might fit where a VA larger unit wouldn't, and vice-versa.  They also have a "mustang style" under dash unit that looks near factory for the American and is perfect for 50s/60s cars, and a wider under dash unit that looks like a dealer installed unit for late 60s/70s cars. The Vintage Air Magnum Gen IV mounts under the passenger side and has ducting toward the center of the car (left end) similar to many factory installations. It would be great for a Rebel/Mat/Ambo. It's the only one that's configured that way.

The only other unit I've found that is much different as far as packaging is the Old Air Products Hurricane unit. It's a boxy unit that's about 12" tall (including duct flanges), 11.5" wide, and 8.5" deep. Wouldn't help with the Javelin, but might work well in other models. They have a side connetion and rear connection (for hoses) model.

Most places sell either VA, SA, or OA products, some customized to individual makes and models, some just dealers. There are some companies selling cloned units, I know Southern Air complained about at least one of their units being cloned a few years ago. Many units are similar, it's just different packaging after all -- AC is AC!! You could get the parts from a junkyard and make your own housing... it's been done before!


Edited by farna - Jun/03/2019 at 6:39am
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Mopar_guy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Dec/13/2020 at 9:08am
I fixed some bad links had changed to https. I know of 6 people (not including Kevin and I) that have this or are doing this in their builds now. I'm happy to see that this thread has been helpful to those who want to add A/C to their car.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote 70 Donohue 390 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Dec/13/2020 at 6:46pm
It's pure joy when you warm the car up to 190 degrees and no leaks the first time. As I said before, your thread really helped me A LOT.
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