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For those of you that have personally talked to someone at Vintage Air, did they say that they were possibly looking into developing a kit for these cars in the further? I have no A/C at all and would love to add in a new system down the road but one of the things I would really like to see is the use of the stock HVAC controls.
LT1swapper, does the Vintage Air HVAC control panel work of vacuum like the 3rd gen unit does?
I read the article on the install, it didnt, it uses electronic stepper setup.
Could be possible to modify a thirdgen control to operate the electronics.
That will depend if its worth the time and effort to do it. I live in New England so its not like I use the A/C for more then 3/4 of the year. I guess I could just either hide the A/C controls or tuck them away under the center vents if need be.
Sadly there was no interest in making a kit for the third gen. Pure lack of demand as there are too few Of us looking for it. However with little mods I was able to fit the magnum in. A simple sheet of plastic allowed me to fit the controls in the stock location. I'm also going to have to modify the passenger kick pannel a bit because the magnum hangs a little lower than stock. I'll post a couple pics of some of the mods I had to make.
No one offers a thirdgen kit, you will have to order a'a-cart, so you could mix and match parts from the different companies. Once you pick a company you have to pick the size of the unit. The size of the unit has to do with amount of air space in the car. With the hatch area I figured the thirdgen was on the larger side of the requirement so I went with the largest kit which is currently the gen IV magnum.
They recommend a Sanden compressor. I have an LS1 and the factory compressor was damaged in the accident the donor car had so the Sanden was a no brainer. I couldn't tell which one I have but Vintage Air sells them and has a recommended list. In theory any compressor (manufacturer) will work but if you want to use something other than Sanden you will have to call Vintage Air and ask. Sanden just started making variable displacement compressors that seem promising. Here is the Sanden cheat sheet, http://sanden.com/pistoncompressors.html
All the lines will have to be custom made. A manual crimper runs about $100+, hydraulic $200+ or Napa (or equivalent) will custom make them to your specs right at the store.
All the vent hose routing is custom. I still have yet to hook up my defroster vents and figure out what to do with those.
The dryer can me mounted anywhere, I threw mine in the bumper next to condenser.
Last edited by camarotucker; Apr 6, 2015 at 06:14 PM.
Reason: add link
I was the author of that article and after GM Hi-Tech Performance went under I was already in the process of starting an automotive aftermarket company. Mods willing, here's a new product I'm launching this week that I developed in cooperation with Vintage Air
Notice how cleanly all the hoses are run -- that said this is a 69 Camaro.
The product is currently in the Vintage Air catalog. This was developed as a result of the tight space on the third-gen, it was a pain in the *** to route lines and bulkhead fittings in such a way that I had wrench clearance. All four fully assembled hoses now fit through a 2.5" hole with no needs for wrench clearance or the leaks of bulkhead fittings.
Based on the fact that you had some influence over which one of these things is the best for third gens. Which parts in the catalog should we be getting if we need to kit out an 85?
It doesn't seem to be obvious from any of the posts on TGO..
Let me know if you have any links to what I should get.
Not to bring a dead thread back to life, but does anyone have any updates on this subject? The HVAC in my '87 is toast and I really dont want to do junkyard fix.
Not to bring a dead thread back to life, but does anyone have any updates on this subject? The HVAC in my '87 is toast and I really dont want to do junkyard fix.
I just put in a Classic Auto Air, stage 3 kit in my 86. I went for an 89 style since i did a motor swap and had converted to a serpentine setup, so all my stuff was reversed. They make the kit for what you have or want, preconfigured to the stock locations of what year of car you have. System went in great, had no issues at all on installation. I haven't charged it yet, due to I'm not done with the swap completely yet. but the stuff on the kit I got was good quality and fit and form was like factory. The top kit gives you everything on the system in brand new parts, right down to the o-ring seals and oil to put on them, sanden compressor, accum, dryer, lines, etc. heres a link: https://www.classicautoair.com/ac-up...89-92-camaros/ I think they just merged with vintage air recently also.
I'm in the process right now of putting a vintage air system in. I will document it in my build thread. Bolting it in is easy, modifying the stock HVAC plastic duct work is what is the challenging part. I don't want to run just tubes to each vent, as its sloppy and looks terrible. I am trying to blend the OEM ducts and V unit together.
I'm in the process right now of putting a vintage air system in. I will document it in my build thread. Bolting it in is easy, modifying the stock HVAC plastic duct work is what is the challenging part. I don't want to run just tubes to each vent, as its sloppy and looks terrible. I am trying to blend the OEM ducts and V unit together.
I would like to see this. I used the heavily modified plastic ducts, but I had to use short pieces of flex ducts to connect to the VA unit. I’m sure you will be able to figure out a way to do it.
I just put in a Classic Auto Air, stage 3 kit in my 86. I went for an 89 style since i did a motor swap and had converted to a serpentine setup, so all my stuff was reversed. They make the kit for what you have or want, preconfigured to the stock locations of what year of car you have. System went in great, had no issues at all on installation. I haven't charged it yet, due to I'm not done with the swap completely yet. but the stuff on the kit I got was good quality and fit and form was like factory. The top kit gives you everything on the system in brand new parts, right down to the o-ring seals and oil to put on them, sanden compressor, accum, dryer, lines, etc. heres a link: https://www.classicautoair.com/ac-up...89-92-camaros/ I think they just merged with vintage air recently also.
The problem I'm having is that the wiring and a lot of the plastics are junk from rodent damage, so a kit like this wouldn't fix my issues.
Third Gen Camaro's & firebirds are finally starting to get some much needed restomod, aftermarket support, and they're starting to bring in the big dough at the barrett-jackson and mecum & other auctions with 1st & 2nd gen camaros approaching unobtainium status for mere mortals.
it's Feb 2022 and I'm wondering IF anybody makes a complete A/C- Heater replacement system for a 3rd Gen yet?
All my duct work is still good, I'd just like to cleanup the firewall and engine bay, so some kind of vintage air type setup would be great that would bag the heatercore, and cleanup that space robbing a/c mess on the passenger side of a factory a/c 3rd gen under the hood.
it gets damm hot in Las Vegas and gotta have a/c in the summer.
I don't want a heinz 57, gotta piece it together system, I want as much plug and play as possible.
Working links to currrent products would be great thanks in advance.
Think there are some after market a/c compressors out there built for our cars. I was looking at them pretty close at one time, but decided to stay factory and converted to r134. It works good enough for me, I'm running T-tops off in the blazing texas heat. No Las Vegas heat, but close.
im looking at options also. i removed all the factory pieces from another car to put back into my car, but i have a dash tube for the rollcage running right through where the main box resides. and also the complete a/c setup is shockingly heavy. i wish there was an easy way to get rid of the enormous boxes on each side of the firewall and retain function of the vents in the dash.
