Stangman70

Hey guys I recently bought a new 70 coupe project that has come with factory A/C. Thinking this car is 41 years old now, I doubted that the A/C still worked but to my amazement Ford did me a solid. Now the air is not the coolest, har har, it is still cooler (see previous har har) than what is vented in when the A/C is off and the fan is on. I did a little reading in both my resto books as well as the forum here and have gathered that I should A. leave it alone, or B. attempt to drain and recharge it with the r12? or C. get a conversion kit for it for the r134? What are some of your thoughts?

andrewmp6

To buy r12 you need a license for it,Put a thermometer in one of the vents see how cold is really blowing.

KMatch

R134 isn't for older systems without considerable updating. Barrier hoses, new drier, etc. 134 is harder to contain and will leak through the older non-barrier hoses.

nassaubayman

R134 won't be as cold as R12. Too bad you don't live near me - I have 5 cans of R12 I can't seen to sell.

I had factory air in my '67 coupe. The compressor was bad. So I decided to upgrade to a Sanden compressor. I also had to replace my condensor, hoses, and another part or two. That thing never did cool worth a flip.

I could have spent the same amount of money to replace everything with a Vintage Air or Classic Auto Air system.

rmodel65

you can get r12 on ebay for about 20$ a can...

jlg2002

As an AC tech from that era it makes me cringe to see R12 for $20 a can. But it makes me really pissed when i have to pay some one $50+ a pound because I don't have the license. I would definitively pay for the freon and if you don't have the tool's to pull it down, pay someone to recycle what you have and you furnish the rest. Because of increased pressures, hose type differences, a rec'ver dryer change & oil differences, it's not a smart idea to convert unless you do the whole deal.

urban_cowboy

I did a R12 to R134 change on my 88 Bronco. It works ok, but R134 works differently than R12. The expansion valve, evaporator, dryer are all a little bit different on a R12 system than a true R134. When you do a conversion, it does not seam to work all that great as all of that stuff is designed for R12 not R134. My Vintage Air R134 system in my 69 Mach 1 is much better than the converted system on my 88 Bronco. I am even thought about changing the Bronco back to R12...and $50 a can is not all that bad when you only need 1.5-2 lbs in a system.

Starfury

Keep it r12. You just need to find a shop that can service it.

What I'd recommend is to have a shop suck all the old r12 out, pull the system apart to replace all of the o-rings, seals, and receiver/drier (this needs to be done any time the system is opened up), then seal it back up and charge it. It might cost a bit, but it'll work better than converting.

andrewmp6

I have seen cans of r12 on craigslist for 20 bucks before but its something some body had sitting in there garage for 10 years plus.

Stangman70

Thanks for the responses guys. I was able to find a local shop who specializes in A/C systems. So I think I am just going to keep the system. As a corollary though, I was thinking about swapping to a 351w in the future, will the bracket work still fit? Car is a 302 currently. I am guessing it would as the blocks are so similar but who knows.