Hi everyone, I need some help or someone to point me in the right direction. I bought a 1985 Sport Coupe from Michigan, however, the car spent the vast majority of its life in Texas. It has no rust issues that I can find or road salt issues. Anyway, the previous owner, the TX one,removed the AC from the car that had it originally. What may I need to do to replace it. I'm having the car shipped from Michigan to PA. The previous owner was trying to turn the car into a race car I can tell. Will it be expensive to replace? I haven't seen the car yet but I knew the Ac was out.

 

Can you be more specific on whats missing?

 

I'll have to get back on that one, since it's in Michigan right now, the owner was only able to tell me that they sell kits to put it back together. This is my fault, I should have asked about the AC earlier. I saw the racing gauge cluster and should have known better. I'm going to ask if he knows what is missing but if the car had it removed for racing, I 'm going to guess most of the main components are gone. I made the mistake of assuming since it was a TX car, it was there since I saw the controls and vents for it. Its okay, I'll put it back. I expected to start putting money into it as soon as it got to PA anyway. Live and Learn.

 

Okay, the guy tells me, that the previous owner has taken everything out of the car. So I have nothing left of the original setup except the knowledge that the car did originally have AC. What do I need to do to get my AC back. I'm not in a rush since Spring just started, I'll have it back by summer's start. And that 305 is outta there! Not sure what I'll replace it with.

 

you may get lucky and find a car like yours in your local pull-a-part. it would be the best way to rebuild it .that way you can see how it goes together

 

Thanks

 

There is a ton of parts you will need. I added A/C years ago. Best bet is to get a donor car. Salvage all you can. The repair manual will have an "exploded" view of the system. Get a copy of those pages. Will be really helpful. Some items will probably need to be replaced (i.e. inline filter, O-rings etc.) Expect a lot of work, but it is doable. Assuming the HVAC controls are still in place?

 

rusty and 85fb are right, donor car is the only way. Piecing it together would just be impractical.

The previous owner was just giving you some BS about a kit. He's probably referring to a Vintage Air kit, but that's not exactly as easy as adding a window air conditioner in your bedroom window either.

 

from the donor you can pull the evaporator, condenser and hard lines. you'll still want to replace the compressor, filter and flex lines with new. RA is a fairly inexpensive source for these.

 

Could also consider a serpentine set up at this time since you're starting from scratch.
The good thing is that the AC parts should be on most any F-Body in the junk yards.
If you hit the right junk yard it should be very reasonable, especially if you remember to grab every nut and bolt while you're there.

Grab some pictures before you pull it too, especially if the donor car is an '85 with the multi-piece PS/AC bracket combo.

If you're thinking 5.3 then that's a little different.

 

Thanks everyone. I guess this counts as a live and learn. The car was from Texas and i didn't trust my gut to ask about the AC since I saw the controls and all. I should have guessed better when I saw the racing gauge cluster. Well, its OK I'll fix this and learn from it, I won't make this mistake again. At least everything else checks out OK. I'm learning as I go. I'll get that repair manual quick.

 

I'm in a similar situation-prior owner started to delete the AC and had everything removed. Only thing he had was the compressor.. I scored a nice box with evaporator core and high & low pressure lines on here for $120 shipped. Picked up inline filter and accumulator new through Summit for cheap and picked up a nice condenser at a local salvage yard for $20. O-ring kit was $5 maybe. Box is in and now have heat, just have to finish the rest. So far, not too bad. My brother is a mechanic so we'll charge the system at his shop.
Definitely look on here-more people pull their AC systems than install so they're plentiful. I agree with above too, great time to switch to a serpentine setup as well. Lines & compressor are different though, you'll need 88-92 V8 (6 cyl systems are different).