Keep Your Cool! Vintage Air Sure Fit Install in a 67 C-10
 

I know it's been a while but I've been pretty busy!

I did this install in the parking lot of my apartment complex a couple hours a night after work (I was always gone on the weekends!) So anyone with a little determination can do this!

*Vintage Air's directions are well done, but lacking with better descriptions and pictures. I did have a couple of mess ups and had to redo a few things, hopefully, by reading this thread, y'all can install this system flawlessly*

The kit cost around $1150 shipped. I ordered the vintage air sure fit kit with the "vintage air" style controls that all mount in the stock A/C areas. I ordered the one for a non air truck with air controls. I've been told you get much more use and climate control if you use a stock A/C controller Vs. a heater controller.

As you'll see I had to change a lot of stuff on my truck and buy tools I didn't have. I spent around $1,500 on my install! OUCH! BUT it's been more than worth it already!

I rebuilt my A/C controller too, check it out!

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=245558

This thread will probably take me several days to compile, so please be patient!

Re: Keep Your Cool! Vintage Air Sure Fit Install in a 67 C-10
 

Step 1: Wash your truck. If you're as slow as I am, this will be the last time you see your truck clean for a while! :lol:

Re: Keep Your Cool! Vintage Air Sure Fit Install in a 67 C-10
 

Once you get your kit, open ALL the boxes and check to make sure you have ALL the parts!

Here's a copy of the VA directions!

http://vintageair.com/DownloadsSecti...ols)%20Ine.pdf

Re: Keep Your Cool! Vintage Air Sure Fit Install in a 67 C-10
 

The first thing to do is drain your radiator. Try to do it legally, whatever that may be! The draincock on a stock truck is located at the bottom of the radiator on the driver's side. Open it to drain the fluid. Then, unbolt the fan shroud from the radiator and push it towards the motor. Remove the upper and lower hoses from the radiator. Remove your overflow line if you have one and unbolt the 2 bolts on each of the two radiator hold downs on top of the radiator. If your truck is an automatic, then remove the two transmission cooler lines on the passenger side. Remove the radiator.

Re: Keep Your Cool! Vintage Air Sure Fit Install in a 67 C-10
 

*The following steps are only necessary if your truck is a long water pump and your alternator is on the "wrong" side.*

***ALWAYS UNHOOK YOUR BATTERY WHEN WORKING UNDER THE HOOD, ESPECIALLY WHEN MESSING WITH THINGS LIKE THE ALTERNATOR!***

The next few steps are alternatives if your truck is "different" like mine. I wanted to have a more stock look to my truck and I wanted the alternator to be on the driver's side and the A/C compressor on the passenger side. My truck has some kind of 80's 350 in it with a long water pump.

I was able to get a stock '72 style alternator bracket off a parts truck my dad had. I cleaned and painted that.

I went to Advance Auto and bought a short water pump only to find out that the long and short pump bolts are totally different and won't interchange. I couldn't find anyone local that sells them, so I ordered them off of ebay. The instructions call for 5/8" heater hose and my hoses on my stock heater unit were larger than that, so back to Advance for the correct heater hose adapters for both the water pump and intake manifold.

Once the radiator is out, remove the fan.

Next, remove the alternator. Loosen the adjustment bolt and remove the belt. Unhook all of the alternator wires, then remove the bolts (one near the bottom that it pivots on) and the adjustment bolts and put the alternator off to the side.

Re: Keep Your Cool! Vintage Air Sure Fit Install in a 67 C-10
 

You don't have to remove the alternator wires. I unhooked my battery and put it off to the side.

Remove the heater hose that's connected to the water pump and put it off to one side for now.

You now have full access to the alternator brackets. Remove the bolt on the front of the water pump and the bolt on top of the intake manifold. You have to remove the lower alternator bracket to gain access to the lower water pump bolt. Once that is removed you can now remove the water pump!

Re: Keep Your Cool! Vintage Air Sure Fit Install in a 67 C-10
 

I like to paint parts before I install them, even if it's not real pretty.

Re: Keep Your Cool! Vintage Air Sure Fit Install in a 67 C-10
 

Install the new water pump. Leave the upper left bolt out, one of the A/C brackets will be bolted in it's place later. I use some thread sealer on the bolts for the water pump. In this pic, the water pump is just "mocked up." I didn't have the correct bolts yet from Ebay.

Re: Keep Your Cool! Vintage Air Sure Fit Install in a 67 C-10
 

All pulleys are not created equal!!!!

I thought because I had a triple groove crank pulley and a double groove water pump pulley that I was "good to go." As you can see, this is not the case!

They DO NOT Line up. The proper crank pulley for a short water pump set-up sits flush against the balancer, now "away" from it. The upper pulley was incorrect as well.

Thankfully, Frank, (Pickmup) was able to hook me up with some really nice used pulleys! Thanks Frank!

Here's NOT what you want to see :(

Re: Keep Your Cool! Vintage Air Sure Fit Install in a 67 C-10
 

Before you install everything on the water pump, now would be a good time to replace the heater hose fittings with the correct ones. They need to be for 5/8" heater hose.

I installed new fittings on both the water pump and intake manifold. I used plumbers tape on the threads.

Re: Keep Your Cool! Vintage Air Sure Fit Install in a 67 C-10
 

Another little pain in the butt thing I had to do was make a new gas line. The old one was already pretty bent up and when I tried to adjust it around the new water pump (it used to fit behind the long water pump, but would not do so with the new short pump) I bent it. I bent up a new one, somewhat properly and installed it. I used 3/8" brake line for the job and flared the end for the rubber fuel line. I don't really have any good pics of what I did, but you can kinda see it in this one.

Once I got my new pulleys I cleaned them up a little and painted them. You can also see the new pulleys installed in the pics below. They line up all proper-like :lol:

*Pretend you don't see the A/C compressor yet, I skipped around a lot during the install, I have ADD :lol:

Re: Keep Your Cool! Vintage Air Sure Fit Install in a 67 C-10
 

More later.... :D

Re: Keep Your Cool! Vintage Air Sure Fit Install in a 67 C-10
 

Using the '72 style alternator bracket, I bolted it in place and reinstalled the alternator. Reconnect the wiring if you removed it earlier.

I forgot to take pics, so here's a couple I snapped last night.

Re: Keep Your Cool! Vintage Air Sure Fit Install in a 67 C-10
 

Now that all of that crap is taken care of, back to the deconstruction :metal:

Remove all visible bolts from the heater unit. Some are under the hood and some are under the dash! There is one down between the firewall and inner fender and is really hard to get to, but can be done without removing the inner fender, you just have to feel for it.

These bolts are under the dash on the passenger side, the one on the lower right is the nut that is on the firewall between the firewall and inner fender.

Re: Keep Your Cool! Vintage Air Sure Fit Install in a 67 C-10
 

Here's another one under the dash, still on the passenger side.

Now would also be a good time to remove your heater hoses.

Re: Keep Your Cool! Vintage Air Sure Fit Install in a 67 C-10
 

Remove the heater ducting.

Re: Keep Your Cool! Vintage Air Sure Fit Install in a 67 C-10
 

Then, once the ducting is out, you can remove this bolt.

Re: Keep Your Cool! Vintage Air Sure Fit Install in a 67 C-10
 

Remove the two screws holding the heater control unit in place and let it hang down. Also, unplug any wiring to it (the light and fan switch). It's not necessary to undo the control sliders.

Also, unplug any wiring to the heater box itself.

You also have to remove the glove box door and liner to get to a bolt that is located behind the glove box. See post #25 below.

Re: Keep Your Cool! Vintage Air Sure Fit Install in a 67 C-10
 

Back under the hood....

Remove all of the bolts you see here :D

Re: Keep Your Cool! Vintage Air Sure Fit Install in a 67 C-10
 

Don't forget the little fella down here... and the one in the corner you can't see!

Re: Keep Your Cool! Vintage Air Sure Fit Install in a 67 C-10
 

Once you get all of the bolts out, you can peel the heater unit away from the firewall. With it moved away from the firewall you will have enough room to remove this. You can also remove it by popping off the plastic cover in this pic and removing it from the inside...

Re: Keep Your Cool! Vintage Air Sure Fit Install in a 67 C-10
 

Now for the tricky part!

You need to remove the heater box from the truck. I didn't want to remove my hood, but you do need to unbolt the 2 back bolts on the hood hinge and can gently tip the hood forward to get enough room to get the heater unit out! I put a line on the fender to mark where the hood needed to go so it would line back up when I put it back on. Don't forget to put your hinge bolts back in before you close the hood! :lol:

Re: Keep Your Cool! Vintage Air Sure Fit Install in a 67 C-10
 

I found the reason for all the noise when I turned the fan on :lol:

Re: Keep Your Cool! Vintage Air Sure Fit Install in a 67 C-10
 

Now would be a good time to remove the glove box door and liner. They come out pretty easy, 4 screws for the door and remove all the screws for the liner, push the edges inward so the clear the dash, and pull it through the glove box door opening.

You can see the heater wiring that needs to be removed from the box.

Re: Keep Your Cool! Vintage Air Sure Fit Install in a 67 C-10
 

Here's what the firewall looks like under the dash and under the hood...

Re: Keep Your Cool! Vintage Air Sure Fit Install in a 67 C-10
 

You can either toss or sell this stuff... mine was shot inside and out. The seals were missing, there was rust on the inside, and the doors wouldn't close properly!

Re: Keep Your Cool! Vintage Air Sure Fit Install in a 67 C-10
 

I really could have used a hand with some of the work, but it's hard to find good help anymore....

Re: Keep Your Cool! Vintage Air Sure Fit Install in a 67 C-10
 

My dash had a little bit of rust, so I figured now would be a great time to take care of it!. I removed the old sealant, did a little sanding, and put some rustoleum paint over it.

Once the paint was dry I put some new sealant down. It's not "pretty" but no one will ever see it... well, at least not after the dash is together (y'all are seeing it now :lol: )

I then let it set up for a day and spray canned it to match the rest of the interior.

Hmmm, I forgot to take a pic of it painted... oh well :crazy:

Re: Keep Your Cool! Vintage Air Sure Fit Install in a 67 C-10
 

You also need to remove the passenger side air vent. They come out easy. Remove the two screws holding the arm in place. Then, open the vent, pull down on the spring loaded bar thingy? and then pull it out. Simple :D

I also sanded and painted the crappy areas.

Re: Keep Your Cool! Vintage Air Sure Fit Install in a 67 C-10
 

You can now INSTALL SOMETHING :metal: :lol:

Lets start with passenger side kick vent cover. If you're happy with how it looks, you can skip some of my steps, but I have the kick panel speakers and I thought that it looked cheesy with the speaker going over top of the cover.

So, I got out my dremel and started trimming. I trimmed it until it fit around the speaker cover. I also noticed that it was hitting against the floor/firewall in the upper left corner, so I trimmed that down as well.

Re: Keep Your Cool! Vintage Air Sure Fit Install in a 67 C-10
 

Once I got it where I wanted it the holes didn't line up with the "dimples" that the instructions say to drill out... So I made my own holes. I also sealed it up with some sealer. You don't have to do this but I didn't want "wind noise" whipping around it. I also drilled a 3rd hole and added a screw to the back of the vent, to make it stiffer.

I forgot to take a pic of it all done, you can kinda see it in the last pic... I painted it too...

Re: Keep Your Cool! Vintage Air Sure Fit Install in a 67 C-10
 

Back to the engine bay!!!

The easiest part to install is the condenser and drier. They come pre-assembled as a unit :D

The instructions say to remove the grill on your truck. I refused to because my truck has been fully painted and there's a lot to taking a grill off of a '67-68 truck. Although it would have been EASIER, I don't think it's necessary. It might be easier to remove the grill from a 69-72? At least on 71/72 I think you can get away with just taking out the plastic insert.

Re: Keep Your Cool! Vintage Air Sure Fit Install in a 67 C-10
 

On the truck itself, you need to remove the hood latch assembly from the truck. 4 bolts and it's off.

The instructions say to drill out the two dimples at the bottom of the radiator for the bottom bolts for the condenser assembly, but my holes were already there!

You need to use the bolts with rubber mounts for the bottom, the rubber part goes on the engine side.

When I went to install my condenser, I saw that the bolt holes wouldn't line up, so I drilled out the holes some, problem solved!

Reinstall your hood latch assembly putting the condenser bracket between the core support and the hood latch assembly.

Re: Keep Your Cool! Vintage Air Sure Fit Install in a 67 C-10
 

Next, you need to install the lines that go through the core support.

My truck DID NOT have the hole drilled for this.

There should be a dimple in the core support, I already drilled the hole in this pic, but pretend there is a dimple in the center :lol:

Re: Keep Your Cool! Vintage Air Sure Fit Install in a 67 C-10
 

*IF* your truck doesn't have the hole drilled... *AND* you refuse to remove your grill, like I did then you will need to drill the hole from the backside (engine side) which will require removing the battery box. There are 3 bolts running along the core support, 2 on the other side, and one bolt is underneath in the wheel well. The following pics show where the bolts should be.

*You can only get to the bolts on the side if the radiator is out of the truck.

Re: Keep Your Cool! Vintage Air Sure Fit Install in a 67 C-10
 

On to the hole drilling! This probably wasn't the best way to do this, but because I was drilling through the backside of the core support, I also had to drill through two pieces of metal, but because my hole bit was short, I wouldn't be able to drill through both pieces without the drill hitting, I used the hole saw I had for the dash to cut out the outer pices (2 1/2").

Once that hole was drilled, I used the divet to center the 1 1/4" hole for the grommet for the A/C lines. The first hole was a little excessive, but I didn't want to buy anymore drill bits. I'm sure the strength of my core support is fine :D

Re: Keep Your Cool! Vintage Air Sure Fit Install in a 67 C-10
 

You can now put your #8 and #6 lines through the core support. I started on the backside with the bigger one first. It takes some fenangleing but it can be done with the grill on, again, another situation where having the grill off makes this SO much easier!

Re: Keep Your Cool! Vintage Air Sure Fit Install in a 67 C-10
 

The next step is to reinstall your battery tray. I cleaned and repainted mine before I installed it.

The instructions say to put the holding clips onto a bracket that comes off of the battery box, but yet again, my truck had no such part, so I mocked up the bracket they did give me and drilled a hole in my battery tray. I drilled the hole in the "sunk in" part because I didn't want a bolt under my battery that would make it not sit flush.

Re: Keep Your Cool! Vintage Air Sure Fit Install in a 67 C-10
 

You can see how the clamps are supposed to go together, I'm actually holding them upside down in the pic!

Open up the clips and put it around the lines.

I interlaced the clips so they held together a little better.

Bolt the clips to the supplied bracket and then bolt the bracket to the battery tray.

*Looking towards the firewall, the #6 line needs to be on the left and the #8 line needs to be on the right*

*Leave the bracket bolts loose until you do the next step, you may need to slide the lines a little bit.*

Re: Keep Your Cool! Vintage Air Sure Fit Install in a 67 C-10
 

Next, Remove the caps off of the drier and the lines.

Put the proper sized grommet onto the lines (it's kinda obvious which fits which) and apply a liberal amount of the supplied lubricant to the O-ring (the tube they give you has quite a bit and I had some extra when I was done.)

Using a wrench on EACH LINE (so you don't bend or break anything) tighten the fittings.

*NOTE: Vintage Air warns that you shouldn't remove a line once it's installed without replacing the grommet, but they don't give you any extra!