Iv tried to find information about the A/C units you mount in the car winder and go down the road. Im not too good at finding much on the search feture on the HAMB. Anyone have some leads?
They are filled with excelsior or other material to hold water from the reservoir in suspension while the outside blows through the unit. The outside air evaporates the water causing a cooling effect inside the car. Often called swamp coolers. They work about as well as A/C units as the Turbulators work under carburetors to deliver more HP and greater gas mileage!
Save your money, buy a Vintage Air unit..."Swamp coolers" are for looks only --"it "looks" like it works...not...!!! R-
Thermador was the popular brand name. Sears robuck, as well as a couple of others also offered one back then. I found my Thermador last year. Expect to pay $200-and up for a complete working unit.
my brother is not so much an old car guy like I am so he doesn't know all the valuable stuff we look for. he likes to go to garage sales and search for goodies. at one of them he found a swamp cooler for 10 bucks and mounted it on his Toyota truck. when he came by one day with that thing mounted to his Toyota I had to laugh. he said he got it for like 10 bucks and it works great. when I told him they go for 200 bucks on ebay suddenly he didn't need to be cool in his truck anymore so I sold it for him. not sure why Stude Dude had a different experience, but believe me, my bro would not have had it on his truck for more than one drive had it not added to the interior cooling.
they work great in a dry climate (more evaporation) in a humid pace not so well. but they are still cool...get it ...cool. AND build a bracket that runs down to the bottom of the window frame, or they will break the window.
Here goes, not everyone's cup of tea however I've had a few different makes and models over the years. They weren't available down under as air would be coming in right on driver (RHD) unless you installed in rear window or had a LHD car. Anyway one type:- Attaches over door glass and requires a support rod; and Attaches to door frame via clamps and doesn't require a support rod. Some have a single retractable draw string and others have 2 draw strings. Some others came with a built in fan motor in inlet. Others just relied on air being forced through unit. Each had vanes to direct airflow. No good in humid climates as moisture is already in air and unit wont remove it. Best in dry climates or for show purposes.
If it gets so hot that I can't bear it without one, I'll just stay home. I don't want anyone to see my car with one of those ugly things hanging off of my window. I felt this way in the 60s when they were available new and my opinion has not changed. Do you really think that thing looks good hanging on your car window? Really?... Really? I want my car to look good and not be just a conversation piece. If your area has a lot of humidity in the summer, they are useless anyway. The theory is that they remove heat because of the latent heat of vaporization. In humid weather the vaporization (evaporation) is greatly reduced and so is the cooling effect. Did I mention that they look like shit?