History When was the first time you saw air conditioning in a hot rod?

I was pondering over HAMB appropriate items, you know, equipment installed in old hot rods up until 1965, and I do not remember seeing A/C in any rods until the mid 70s.
So, who was the first to put A/C in an old rod? I am talking about 1948 and older rods, not the later 50s stuff.

 

Air conditioning makes it a Street Rod, not a Hot Rod.

Circa 1970 would be the turning point where the downhill slide began, from my recollection.

 

I haven't yet.

 

Hot Rod. Air Conditioning. I recognize all those words, but they don't make sense to me when put together like that.

 

This Is The First A/C Auto I Recall Seeing...Add On I Believe...

 

And not 0nly did it have air but the car also had a optional heater, Clyde is seen holding it. HRP

 

And used it to shoot open his locked door!

 

Swamp ass is traditional.

 

Do you mean my cowl vent??

 

Ha ha. now thats funny

 

Factory A/C.

 

We need more threads like this!

 

First real job out of the farm fields as a teenager was Keith Blacketer hired me at John E. Mitchell Company in Dallas making Mark IV auto air conditioners. That was back when Dallas/Fort Worth was the world center of aftermarket auto air conditioning. John E. Mitchell Company, Clardy, Frigiking and Vanguard were the biggest. Tried to put me in cotton gin machine department but I skipped out after punching in every morning and took up residence in Air Conditioning Adapter Kit department. Designed and fabricated brackets, specced belts, pulleys, hoses, compressors, evaporators, and attaching hardware. Did a few friends' cars on the side. Got to be known as the kid A/C guy and that's what got me hired at Vanguard Motors working on the Warrior 1 and later Vetta Ventura cars.
Here's an under dash Vanguard unit on a Vanguard Vetta Ventura. I installed that in 1966.




Vanguard Warrior 1 car that was based on the Ford design as the original Mustang Concept in 1962. Vanguard Corp took over the project after Lee Iacocca changed marketing plans at Ford. Warrior 1 never had A/C. It was ultra light, rear mid-engine with a German Ford V4 Taunus power train.
Pics from 1964 Detroit Auto Show.

 

Clyde wasn't as smart as I am, I got in with no damage & no Locksmith! HRP

 

The swamp coolers were first offered to the public around 1939 according to some, I would think some enterprising young hot rodder installed one in the passenger window to encourage that certain young lady to go for a ride. HRP

 

Yep, they call my 36 Chevy a streetrod cause it's got AC. I call if comfortable. After spending 41 years in the mobile AC business, I understand comfort and classic style can go together.

 

I saw one last night between sips

 

I put AC in the '47 Plymouth about 40 years ago, an old underdash unit I took off an old Cutlass.

 

Raised in a small Texas town that had a two-story frame movie theater on the town square, the opportunity for mischief was too much for a growing boy. Built before the days of air-conditioning, on the roof of this movie house was a big fan-driven swamp cooler.

One favorite prank was to pay one of the farmers who came into town on Saturdays to buy us kids a tin of cheap powdered snuff. Red Man was a good choice. We then climbed the fire escape ladder while movie patrons were buying tickets and finding seats. Up on the roof we waited until the cartoons and news reels were finished and the main feature had started. Then the powdered snuff got tossed into the fan intake.

Inside the theater a brown cloud of snuff descended from the ceiling vents onto the patrons. It was like chemical warfare. Took a couple minutes for movie goers to stream out of the theater coughing, sneezing, rubbing their eyes and gasping for breath. In those couple minutes we kids made our getaway and watched from behind the town blacksmith's shop.

It was glorious. One of Earl "Barnyard" Barnhart's favorite Saturday tricks. We had others.

ETA: Family named Skelton owned and ran the theater. One afternoon after marrying my first wife, her family took us to visit friends of theirs in Dallas. It was the Skeltons! Don't think they recognized me and if they did they didn't say anything.

 

A/C may not be exactly traditional, but it's certainly "cool".

 

Has anyone on the HAMB ever experienced the effects of a swamp cooler?

 

The ONLY place they are effective is in real low humidity [ desert] areas. And then a window has to be open some to allow for air flow.

Ben

 

Hello,
Ha! My dad got one for his 1949 black Buick 4 door Roadmaster. It went on the passenger door window and took up a lot of space. It did cool the inside down, but it was better for the two little kids in the back to roll down the window. My dad thought it was the best. But, my mom hated the thing.

When she had to get out of the door, that thing dripped water and undoubtedly, she got wet to a certain degree. That was the one thing that made my mom stand up and tell our dad to get rid of the "stupid" thing. It was not air conditioning as we all know it today. It was air circulation with wind blowing over and around water moisture.

No matter what my dad did, he finally relented and got rid of it. My mom finally got her way with something in one of our family cars.

Jnaki
My dad's first real A/C was in the new 1963 Buick Riviera. We loved driving around in that car, but we were too old to go somewhere with our parents, by then. We had our own cars and transportation at the time, but, all with no A/C. My wife and I did not have A/C until our 2nd 40 Ford Sedan Delivery with the old style York compressor.

For those that denigrate hot rods with A/C, just get into your modern daily drivers and don't turn on the A/C. The new style horizontal compressor units allow for better power, colder air and can be less intrusive on the motor. The old York style vertical units were good, but were in the older Freon category, too.


P.S. For all practical purposes, those extra belts did rob a lot of horsepower on the motors. That was something we could not have in our cars back then. So, the term, "up sails and down sails" was used quite often in the hardtop cars.

 

Close, but you missed the cutoff by one year.

 

Growing up in the sixties, there were several things not compatible with the term Hot Rod. Air conditioning was below four door sedan or station wagon, but above , at least by a little, automatic transmission and power steering.

Air conditioning usually meant no more than a 3.23:1 gear.

Nobody even contemplated adding a/c to a pre-war car. Fifties cars were more likely stripped of “heavy, power consuming options “ when they turned into HotRods.

Even the magazine road tests of the day made excuses re the heavy, power robbing A/C when a car so equipped turned in sub par performance numbers.

That’s how I remember it, although I grew up pretty far North. (About as far as you can go without getting your feet wet).

 

If its got air conditioning it's a street rod.

 

Real men don't need no dam air conditioning.

 

Okay, for the record..I hate those damn ugly swamp coolers, and wouldn't hang one on an out house.

 

Call my cars whatever you want but they all have A.C.. I'm not driving 4-500 miles one way without A.C... .and I road trip my cars.