Hot Rods Going the extra mile for a period correct build

Maybe you could do as Mark said and put a newer compressor right up top in the middle and fabb up a tight fitting cover for it and paint and pinstripe it. Maybe? See, I can be constructive at times, Lippy

 

I'm not sure I understand this "correct" term. We are talking about Hot Rod's, which by definition is a car modified for performance or looks to meet the owners needs or desires. So I define what is "correct" for my car. It's often the most vocal about the period correct rules who define their cars as "period correct, except for . . . . ". If you are going to comment on what is "wrong" with another's choices, yours should be pure beyond reproach. Few are. I love when someone tells me something is "wrong" on my car. Nope, nothing wrong with the car. Might be something wrong with you.

I also agree with Jnaki's post about accuracy of period correct. A lot of cars billed as period correct are in fact of mish mash of different periods of old.

Live by the Jim Croce motto: If you dig it, do it. If you dig it a lot, do it twice!

 

Rock on Boatmark

 

Maybe it's just me but when I go to a car show and see an air unit in a car I tend to think more about the work that went into putting it in than being of a certain period in hot rodding. Sometimes I look at old hot rod books and wonder if these guys who built them back in the day them would have used these modern updates had they been available to them at the time or the guys that bought brand new cars and took them in to be customized back then.

 

I lucked out and scored a factory in dash A/C setup, I’ll be running a sanden on 134A, but I’m tucking it in on the bottom of the motor so it’s less visible.

 

So, after looking at Mark's 40 it appears that I need a vintage, chrome air compressor that measures somewhere around 2" x 3".

 

That should be easy to find LOL

 

Some of the old York/Tecumseh compressors were bare aluminum that could be polished up nicely. But they are big, bulky units and about impossible to hide, so they'd need to be up top.

I'd just use a chrome Sanden style up top and make it a focal point instead of trying to hide it.

 

York/Tecumseh compressors are called paint shakers down here.

 

Looks like I may just have to fall under the "Traditionally styled" category. I'm afraid I wouldn't make a very good numbers matching resto guy. Can't fault a guy for trying.

 

I'm sure they did, but they also likely dropped dead in the heat at a higher rate than today...

Yesterday I went on a cruise in my non-AC avatar. Temps got into the low 90s which around here is very hot. The afternoon drive back was miserable, and both myself and my GF needed cold showers when we got home to get our core temps back down... not a healthy thing. Us PNW people just aren't acclimated to these temps, although one member whose GF is from Arizona, she thought it was great (she wears a coat when temps here are in the mid-70s, it was the very first time I've seen her in a t-shirt... LOL). Sure, when I was younger I could tough it through but it's getting increasingly hard to do that. But with all that said...

I've never seen a AC install on a 'trad' car that didn't look 'added on', factory or not. The York and Tecumseh compressors used in those days were too large to conceal, most compressor brackets looked a bit crudely home-made (even when they weren't), and the under-dash units rarely meshed style-wise with the interior. I see the newer Sanden compressors as an improvement as you at least have a shot at hiding one, although it will be challenging on any pre-50s car. Switching from front to side motor mounts will be a step in the right direction, but I think you'd have to plan the build around the AC. And not to ruffle feathers, but I can't recall seeing even one in-dash install that at the end of the day really looked like it belonged there. The 'generic' dash vents sold by the aftermarket vendors don't help with that.

I don't think it's impossible to do a AC install on older cars, but some of the premises need to be re-thought IMO. In-dash vents could be forgone with, using the heater/defrost vents will accomplish much the same function, which at the end of the day is to reduce the in-car temp, not just blow cold air onto you.

 

Been doing this since 1970 and built a lot of kinda period correct cars without air. Of the 5 hot rods I currently own only one has air and I drive the non air cars very little. I just finished updating my 40 standard coupe. My main concern was keeping the exterior looking stock. Already had a 327/350/8 inch drive train. I updated the rear suspension for a better ride, added power boosted front disc brakes for better stopping, added a new 525 box for better steering, anti roll bars F&R for stability, Newport wiper system, cruise control for easier long distance driving and finally air using Bills brackets under the hood with hidden hoses and the Vintage air unit tucked discretely up under the dash, all the controls using the stock in dash 40 knobs. Traditional, period correct, hell no but it's been updated so at 75 years old I can enjoy it and it still looks stock from the outside. I'll build my next Flathead powered car more (Period Correct)???????????????????

 

^^Agree with this-at 77 I like the comfort-have done many 40's as mentioned by krylon 32

 

The truck in question is my “keeper” truck. It will never be sold, as long as I live. My dad bought it for my second birthday. I have struggled with what to do to make myself happy. I have a 390 Caddy slated for it, but I have been pondering throwing a tri-powered 327 in it that I own.

It came out of my father in laws Chevy pu. It will have the heads on it that my dad set a national record with. It would be a combination of her dad and mine. My FIL passed away 3 years ago and it would kinda be cool to honor him by putting his old motor in my keeper hot rod.

I can put the Caddy in a period correct roadster. They don’t need air....

 

327!!

 

In regards to the AC, I wonder if just the complete factory set up from an early car with some modified lines to fit your application would suite your needs? Like in the late 50s you junkyarded an AC setup and fit it to your hotrod. Im not sure. When Was the first AC an option? Might be a neat project. Might be a super pain in the ass haha. Just an idea good luck.

Edit..... I just googled it and it says Packard had AC in 1940. Im picturing like a black laquer compressor that looks neat but who knows

 

My O.T. car got its A/C refreshed ('O' rings, rec./drier, recharge) by me last weekend. Ahhh, relief in our 102* days 5 in a row.
But my '55 F100 is my former shop truck, as well as support vehicle for the old Street legal A/G roadster we ran at Fremont ('Baylands' back then)
Same truck, still make local runs, a 'regular' at Eagle Field.
SBC, 350TH, 9" butt. Dependable.
But the A/C unit on the Chev exhaust manifold bracket has been converted to an air compressor for those 'Service Calls'...and truck still looks like a nice, hot-rodded F100.

Sooo...Now I'm 77, and the Off Topic Merci-Bz has begun to rile my truck:
F100 scowls at the pretty, white 2-seat 300SL Roadster in the car port. My fault... When the needle goes above the 90* mark, I head for the A/C model.
Compressed air on the truck is not something I'd remove, but another compressor? For air conditioning? On the SAME ENGINE? Dual compressors?
Nope. Not even COOL.

 

AC was generally rare as factory installs until the late 60s. Most OEMs didn't even offer it until the mid 50s and even then most were just repackaged aftermarket units. One thing that accelerated 'integrated' AC was when the factory's started deleting vent windows and compensated by starting to install in-dash vents. Once the vents were in place, it wasn't much of a leap to add AC.

 

Proper spelling for a complicated name.

 

1st I recall was my grandparents new Cadillac-maybe 53 then my grandmothers 56 Chevy with factory air. Didn't see too many though. Neighbors 57 Nomad is a factory air car as well.

 

Drive the compressor off the driveshaft, don't stop.

 

I'll be ok with a Sanden 508 if I tell myself it's not a period correct build.

 

Are you changing your transmission plans? If not it's not period correct anyways AC or not.

 

Hey Roothawg.......can't you mount the compressor on the driveshaft? I never done it but why wouldn't it work?
Granted....when you're stopped it ain't cool'in but when you are ............
Looks like a lot of the "don't-do-its" are coming from fellas that HAVE AC(in their early 60's/late 50's) or they live in a cooler climate. (some places it really DOES cool off some at night....or so I've heard.....but not OK or SC.!) Then those fellas that talk about their...."dry heat"! Yeah right.
You're/I'm too damn old to sweat our butts off so we can proudly state....."see it's totally period correct!"
Bet theirs don't run 100 octane gas like back in the day/good old non detergent oil like back in the day/road tube(no pcv) like back in the day........and on and on!
Jus say'in
6sally6

 

No. I don't want the Caddy transmission. Expensive and temperamental. Any other tranny would probably get shredded. Early Ford? Nah?

 

SOOOOOOOO much history with the 327. Total tribute car all the way around, but tributes to people YOU care about.

 

1955 Mercury’s had a trunk mounted A/C unit as a accessory. Traditional.

 

That's where the factory air on my '56 DeSoto is also. Looong AC lines...

 

OMG, LMAO!!

 

There have been alternators driven of of the axle pinion. Maybe you could do the same with a compressor and hide it in the trunk.