Anybody put the AC in the trunk?

I have been thinking about mounting the AC evaporator in the trunk. There just isn't enough room behind the dash to get it in and still have room for the radio, electric wipers and glove box. has anyone done this and how did it work out?

 

Just about every newer SUV has an evaporator in the rear, usually tucked up behind the inner quarter panel trim.. grab one from the pick and part and get hoses cut to order from your local hydraulics place and your chillin.

 

A friend did one in a 40 coupe many years ago. Had the vents on a rear package tray. Kept your ears really cool.

 

Did it in a 67 camaro. Buddy did it in a 69.

 

A guy I know had Barry Whites shop install one in a Model T. He wasn't impressed.

 

Everyone probably remembers the Opel GT, the mini-Vette lookalike sold thru Buick dealers. The rare A/C was a trip. Everything that usually would be under the dash(where there was no room in the Opel) was under the rear shelf- not right under the window, but where a back seat would be if there was room. The ductwork ran thru and out a custom center console. Took up no extra room and shot the air right at the driver and passenger. This was probably the only choice, as these cars, like Vettes, had no trunks.

 

I just parted out a 60 caddy with aftermarket air in the rear deck. (4 sale)

 

Huh? AC in the trunk? Why would you want to put the windows in the trunk? I just wind them down for real hotrodders AC.........

Hey, Im just playing......

Doc.

 

so, do you carry passengers in trunk that you want to keep cool? (Ha!)

 

Look for a unit out of a truck sleeper. You can't give the sleepers away most of the time, and they have a nice little self contained heater-air unit.

 

YES! that is awesome hahahaha

 

yeah I put a vintage air unit in the trunk of my tall T, ran the lines under the car had the vents in the package tray and under the seat riser,contols also in the package tray worked great for a coupe with NO room,V/A helped alot on the phone.........

 

I saw a guy's 5 window Model A at the Endicott Estate earlier this month with rear mounted A/C.
It was household unit, with an inverter tossed in the back, resting in the footwell of the rumble seat with a bunch of cheesy aluminum work and pop rivets all around it.
Very fucked up looking!
I was embarrassed to stand near the car.

 

sounds like some of the stuff ive been sein on whitetrash reapeairs site, but they got generators boltd to the back of the cars for the ac powr. i think its worth sweating!

 

Look at conversion vans as some had a heat and a/c unit under the rear seat.

 

Ive seen some conversion vans with the a/c in the rear window.

 

no shortage of comedians here....

seems like every major manufacturer had it mounted in the trunk at first, until they worked out how to make room under the dash. used to see lots of caddies, lincolns, etc with the plexiglass tubes coming out of the package shelf, and the evap/blower unit mounted under it. in most of these cars, that's space that can't be efficiently used anyway, unless you have 5 foot arms or want to climb into the trunk.

ingenious folks could plumb the cold air right up under the front seats where it does the most good.

it'd beat the hell out of lugging around a swamp cooler.

 

^^^I wish someone would publish a "how-to" article on this.^^^
It could be very useful.

 

Only had my a/c in the trunk when I hauled it home.
But not a bad idea if you can get it to work efficiently.
I know the die hards will mock you about a/c, but so what hot rodding is about what ever works for the individual project.

 

Bought a 54 Chevy that had the rear air in it already,worked fine and really didn"t take up alot of room,hell I thought it was hot here in Fla,went to Texas to the trader Days outside of Dallas and it was 104 at 7am,you need ac.

 

That great military leader, General Motors, did it back in the '50s. Friend of mine has a '55 Olds with factory air in the trunk, clear plastic ducts sticking up from the package tray.

 

You mean like my old '54 Buick Special I owned in the 1960's? (dealer installed). If the conditions were right, it would blow ice crystals onto the back of your neck.

 

You would want a unit that had everything except the compressor and condenser in one unit. An aftermarket unit would probably be the cleanest but a guy could adapt one from a doner vehicle without a lot of trouble. Maybe even one of those hang under the dash units using a duct system you built for it.

The guys who knock a guy for wanting ac obviously aren't married or intend to have a girlfriend for any length of time. Or maybe at my age I just don't want to make cross country runs sweating the whole way again like I did 30 years ago.

 

Rats. I was going to say I put my AC unit on the shelf,because it was a HOT rod. And, it doesn't really look good running open hood sides on an A. But, I don't take the car on long trips. If you need it, build it. Why not ask the guys at Vintage Air for help engineering it?

 

Nah, were just hard asses. Bit of heat never hurt anyone and I guess the women here in Australia are a little ruggeder too!

Doc

 

im thinking of the same mounting something in the trunk vents out the center console next time im at the junk yard im taking some of these home to experiment
its electric driven a/c


The model 1100 unit was designed for the luxury van conversion market. It's slim compact size provides heating and air conditioning while maintaining a very quite operation. The 3 speed permanent magnet motor provides quite, long lasting operation.
<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="300"><tbody><tr> <td width="97">BTU Cooling </td> <td width="195">15,000</td> </tr> <tr> <td>BTU Heating </td> <td>24,000</td> </tr> <tr> <td>CFM</td> <td>290</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Amps at 13.5v </td> <td>9.5</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Dimensions</td> <td>17.5W x 6D x 12H"</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Weight</td> <td>9 lbs </td></tr></tbody></table>Priced with Complete Installation Kit
<table bgcolor="#f4f4f4" border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="400"> <tbody><tr> <td bgcolor="#33ccff" width="61">

Stock # ​

</td> <td bgcolor="#33ccff" width="258">

Selected Van Application​

</td> <td bgcolor="#33ccff" width="61">

Price​

</td> </tr> <tr> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">650177</td> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">01+ Astro with YF7, with 2-2.5" Outlets </td> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">

$387​

</td> </tr> <tr> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">650178</td> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">01+ Astro with YF7, without 2-2.5" Outs</td> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">

$445​

</td> </tr> <tr> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">650370</td> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">01+ Dodge with HC </td> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">

$387​

</td> </tr> <tr> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">650453</td> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">01+ Dodge without HBC </td> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">

$387​

</td> </tr> <tr> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">650375</td> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">01+ Dodge Short with HBC </td> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">

$387​

</td> </tr> <tr> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">650454</td> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">01+ Dodge Short without HBC </td> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">

$387​

</td> </tr> <tr> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">650865</td> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">04-06 Ford with 57X </td> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">

$387​

</td> </tr> <tr> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">650891</td> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">04-06 Ford with 57X (Max Output) </td> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">

$420​

</td> </tr> <tr> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">650192</td> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">01-03 Ford with 57X </td> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">

$420​

</td> </tr> <tr> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">650937</td> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">01-03 Ford without 57X </td> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">

$486​

</td> </tr> <tr> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">650870</td> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">04-07 Ford without 57X - with Wire </td> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">

$486​

</td> </tr> <tr> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">650470</td> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4"> Ford without 57X (Max Output)</td> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">

$486​

</td> </tr> <tr> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">651124</td> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">07+ Ford without 57X </td> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">

$418​

</td> </tr> <tr> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">651121</td> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">07+ Ford without 57X (Max Output)</td> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">

$481​

</td> </tr> <tr> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">651100</td> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">07+ Ford without 57X Plumbers </td> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">

$481​

</td> </tr> <tr> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">650149</td> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">01+ GMT 600 Van with YF7 </td> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">

$397​

</td> </tr> <tr> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">650245</td> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">01+ GMT 600 Van without YF7 </td> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">

$480​

</td> </tr> <tr> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">650764</td> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">03+ GM with YF7 </td> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">

$387​

</td> </tr> <tr> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">650767</td> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">03+ GM without YF7 </td> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">

$511​

</td> </tr> <tr> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">650049</td> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">Evaporator Only-without kit </td> <td bordercolor="#DFDFDF" bgcolor="#f4f4f4">

$270​

</td> </tr> </tbody></table>

 

--------------------------------------------
Chrysler and Packard used factory 'trunk
mounted' air conditioners in the '40's and
'50's too.

Mart3406
========================

 

cool, no pun intended lol

 

I'd like to see that. I have a 2 door myself.

 

I'm installing a Vintage Air trunk unit in a 51 Chev business coupe now. It's a well designed, compact yet powerfull setup. I dynamatted the interior so the ac should cool the car easily.