A/C Upgrade / Restoration. Any Tips?

Isaiah Estrada

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So I pulled out the dash to the New Yorker leaving the heater box exposed!

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I am in the best position ever to remove this box and do a refresh on it. I want to modernize this system and add on a Sanden SD7H15 compressor to the system.

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Scored this Heater / AC control switch on eBay earlier. As far as the box goes, what do I need to do to make sure this thing is good to go once I re assemble everything? I’d hate to have the thing installed and find out it’s not working properly. Is there anything that can be upgraded or retrofitted in there? I don’t believe there are new heater cores available for the factory AC 68.

Are there any detailed threads on this here on FCBO? I couldn’t find much when I tried to do a quick search…

ALSO!!! Can anyone point me out to where I can find the rubber seals / gasket that go on here the heater hose in / out goes on the firewall? Mine are thrashed.

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Thanks John! I had been trying to find that first thread actually, seen it a long time ago and forgot what it was called.

The task seems intimidating but it’s gotta get done!
I did the conversion myself. I had nothing left under under the hood, it had all been removed by a previous owner and twisted off A/C connections at the firewall. Bought a kit from Home - Bouchillon Performance Engineering and then bought a crimper to make all the hoses myself.

It all blows cold now, but I think I would have gone with a little bigger compressor.
 
I did the conversion myself. I had nothing left under under the hood, it had all been removed by a previous owner and twisted off A/C connections at the firewall. Bought a kit from Home - Bouchillon Performance Engineering and then bought a crimper to make all the hoses myself.

It all blows cold now, but I think I would have gone with a little bigger compressor.

That’s awesome! I definitely feel like at this point, why wouldn’t I get it working. I feel pretty confident in the whole conversion! What compressor did you use?

I’ve been slacking on updating it, but today I added some details on the car’s progress here on my restoration thread! Abandoned for 40 years: 1968 New Yorker 2 DR
 
That’s awesome! I definitely feel like at this point, why wouldn’t I get it working. I feel pretty confident in the whole conversion! What compressor did you use?
Boucillon sold me one of their Sanden SD508 copies.

Stan (@commando1 ) used a Mack truck unit for his. I've thought about upgrading to that, but since my car is a convertible, the AC often loses out to the top going down LOL.
1976 NYB R2 To Sanden Compressor Conversion.
 
There used to be a couple of Sanden update threads, over various model years. One of the most recent is from TxDon on his '66 Monaco wagon. He bought the crimper and did his own lines. Lots of pictures.

Might as well change the heater core and evap core, too. It is claimed that a mass-flow condenser works better than the OEM serpentine condenser. The mass-flows are usually universal unless you might find one of the newer OEM ones that is big enough and will fit the car.

Keep up the good work!
CBODY67
 
Just FYI, there are new heater cores available for A/C equipped cars. Search for 1968 Mopar dual heater cores for c bodies. The
search will bring up cores on E-Bay, Original Air, Mopar Mall etc. the evaporator and heater core are combined in one unit so they are pricey, I’ve seen them go for $340 to $465. Maybe you can have it recored for less? I have seen that suggested on this forum in other threads.
 
There used to be a couple of Sanden update threads, over various model years. One of the most recent is from TxDon on his '66 Monaco wagon. He bought the crimper and did his own lines. Lots of pictures.

Might as well change the heater core and evap core, too. It is claimed that a mass-flow condenser works better than the OEM serpentine condenser. The mass-flows are usually universal unless you might find one of the newer OEM ones that is big enough and will fit the car.

Keep up the good work!
CBODY67

Do you happen to have any sources for a heater core and evap core? I really like the sound of the mass flow condenser. Would love to find the best I can do I can do it right the first time and (hopefully) not have to mess with it for a long time!

Thanks for the support and advice!
 
I think you mentioned you have a slight water leak from the heater box. It isn't that difficult to take it apart once you have it on the bench. Take lots of pictures while disassembling. You will need them during reassembly. Once open the heater core and evaporator will be exposed. It may be possible to solder over a small hole in the heater core if you can find it. I would use a small butane torch (a handy thing to have around for a lot of issues) with a pinpoint flame to avoid any collateral damage. clean the area and use a bit of flux.
 
As far as the A/C goes you will need to replace the hoses. They are 50+ years old. You will need one of these to replace them:
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All the hoses and crimped ends are easy to find online. The more expensive part is mounting the Sanden compressor. I used the bracket setup from cvfracing.com. You will need to also change the PS pump to a saginaw version. Their website has photos. Don't buy the pump from them though, NAPA costs a lot less. Just make sure it comes with all the mounting studs on the back of it. You will need to replace the receiver/dryer. Also get couple cans of A/C flush while at NAPA. You have to clean out ALL the old R-12 oil from the remaining parts. Vaccum out the system when assembled the fill with R134 + about 4 oz. of PAG oil. The correct version should be specified on the compressor.
 
When completed it will look a lot like this:
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This is not a low cost thing to do. Be prepared to open your wallet. And yes the fuel filter above is long gone.
 
By all means replace the evaporator & heater cores. As mentioned in an earlier post the Heaterbox Guy sells fully restored HVAC units. I talked to him a few years ago at Carlisle and saw his restored boxes, they looked great. For a compressor go with the Sanden . Bouchillion Perfomance seems to have the best setup, correct pulleys and all. With your dash out there will never be a better, or easier time to restore your HVAC system.
 
This is the crimper I bought, although I found a better deal on it on eBay.

Amazon product ASIN B000WBQ4U2
Stuff I didn't get from Bouchillon came from this eBay vendor. He had the best deals on everything. MR FOMOCO MOTORCRAFT | eBay Stores I talked on the phone to him once (some sort of PayPal screw up) and he's a retired Ford parts guy that has been working with A/C stuff for a long time.

My crossflow condenser came from Bouchillon. They are very knowledgeable to talk to on the phone. I'm not sure if the '68 has an idler pulley, but if it does, they have a double groove water pump pulley (also comes in chrome) that eliminates the idler pulley and one belt. BPE Water Pump Pulley - Bouchillon Performance Engineering By using this pulley, you use the power steering pump to tension the water pump belt (so one belt now drives the water pump and P/S pump)
 
BTW, if you don't want to buy the crimper, there may be some shops that will make the hoses for you.

There wasn't anyone in my area that could/would do them... Including a buddy that could make any hydraulic hose imaginable. Gotta have the correct dies for it. I ended up popping for the tool.
 
BTW, if you don't want to buy the crimper, there may be some shops that will make the hoses for you.

There wasn't anyone in my area that could/would do them... Including a buddy that could make any hydraulic hose imaginable. Gotta have the correct dies for it. I ended up popping for the tool.

There’s a place in town who does custom hoses, will check them out and see if they can make what I need!

Thanks for all your input fellas. Really gonna do my HW now on this so I can make it happen! At the very least I’m going to do a total rebuild on the heater box itself. I want to have the car out by May for a big show we have here - don’t know if by sending it out it might not be back in time! Nonetheless, I will do what I can and the best I can. If I can at least take care of the heater box that’s one huge burden off my shoulders and I feel like the rest is not as tough! With the heater box restored, the dash which will also be rebuilt / restored with NOS parts can go back in.

It’s going to be an awesome transformation!

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Some goodies I’ve acquired for the Yorker over my 2 years ownership of it.

If I can have the car running at least, I’ll be light years ahead of where I am now. I can live without the AC (for now) - at least the really hard part will have been taken care of!

Also would give me time to save up for the best setup I can put together and install it all at once. Thankfully the weather here in Santa Maria ain’t all that bad. No AC for a while won’t hurt. But the car has to drive soon, it’s just been sitting and I’ve been needing to get it out and driving so we can fine tune on it.
 
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