Vintage Air Install: 1963 LeSabre Sport Coupe

Discussion in 'The Big Chill' started by M1Lover, Jan 27, 2016.

  1. M1Lover

    M1Lover Well-Known Member

    Hey Gents, good morning. I'm in Sunny Arizona and cannot drive my '63 LeSabre for about 4 months of the year due to its a non-AC car and the fact that I'm getting old and grumpy. I'm in the planning stage of the Vintage Air installation and was wondering if anybody has done this in their similar era Buick. I know that the SECOND time you do a particular project, its EZ, but the first time has a steep learning curve. I'm hoping someone with the job under their belt can give me some pointers and wisdom-nuggets to make this job easier before I pull the hood and drain the anti-freeze. If we all had Chevelles or Impalas it would be easy, no? Screw that, I LOVE my Buick.
    I'd previously installed a new 3-core Harrison radiator from an A/C'd '62 LeSabre, including the shroud, 5-blade clutch fan, smaller pulleys and a new Flow-Kooler water pump. THANKS for any help in advance! Hunter
    [​IMG]
     
  2. OHC JOE

    OHC JOE Mullet Mafia since 2020

    I just did a 1980 TRANS AM..... Not bad at all....just read the directions a couple of times.....good pics on the instructions so that makes it easier plus you have a bigger dash and more room to work in....
     
  3. elagache

    elagache Platinum Level Contributor

    Obstacles in a Buick install. (Re: Vintage Air Install: 1963 LeSabre Sport Coupe)

    Dear Hunter, Joe, and V-8 Buick cool-cat wannabees, . . . :cool:

    Well yes I love my Buick also! [​IMG] But alas, like tennis when it comes to installing an aftermarket air conditioner in your car - love means absolutely nothin'!

    As you say, there is no aftermarket kit for your car. However, you are in a similar situation to my wagon. Vintage Air makes a generation IV system for the 1963 Impala:

    http://www.vintageair.com/2015 Catalog/2015 VintageAir Catalog 25.pdf

    It - might - help to use a kit that is designed for a similar car. It turned out to be extremely helpful for my wagon because the 1965 Buick was similar to the 1964-67 GTO. It was possible to even use the GTO controls so that I was able to keep the original Buick control. However, you'll need to compare your car to what the Impala was like to see if there is enough similarity to make that a good choice.

    There are a few problems that have to be solved one way or another:

    You'll need to fashion a custom bracket to support the Sanden compressor. In my case, the bracket was made by grafting the Vintage Air compressor to a Buick compressor bracket with suitable welting. This needs to be done with great care so that the pulleys align properly.

    You'll need to make sure you can get a condenser that will fit your Buick. Vintage air has quite a few sizes so you probably can get something that will fit, you'll need swap the condenser that came with the kit (if you go that route) for the condenser that fits. You'll have to once more come up with a bracket to support it

    Routing the hoses may be something of a challenge. On the GM A-Body cars, Vintage Air suggests clobbering one of the fresh air vents. The shop that did the work for me found a way to route the hoses through the original heater housing so that the job was cleaner and both fresh air vents were preserved (also the space for kick-panel speakers.)

    You'll need to make room for the evaporator unit under the dash. You will most likely need to fashion for yourself a new glove box liner.

    You'll have to decide what to do about the air vents. Vintage Air sells under dash units, but they are of poor quality and just look cheap. If you have the space under the dash, the Mark IV system looks original and avoids messing up the dash:

    http://www.vintageair.com/2015%20Catalog/2015%20VintageAir%20Catalog%2050.pdf

    That also solves the problem of controls. If you decide to put create vents in the dash it looks a lot better, but is of course much harder. That also gives you a problem of how to control the system. You can try to use the Buick controls or you can use some of the controls that Vintage Air provides.

    That's a gloss of what's involved. I may have forgotten some of it, but that's enough for your to start planning. It is a lot of custom work.

    One more thing to keep in mind is that Vintage Air has some serious competition from Classic Auto Air:

    http://www.classicautoair.com/

    and Old Air Products:

    http://www.oldairproducts.com/catalog/

    Definitely take a look at all the products before selecting one.

    I hope that's some help. However, honestly I must report . . . . it's t'ain't easy!

    Cheers, Edouard :beer
     
  4. JZRIV

    JZRIV Platinum Level Contributor

  5. M1Lover

    M1Lover Well-Known Member

    Thanks for the replies Gents. I'll be doing this work myself. I got quoted $3500 for the job by two installers and, as a working guy, that's out of the question. I'm hoping to find a guy with a very similar car who's done the job himself. I once did a 350 Chevy / 700R4 conversion on an '83 Toyota Landcruiser. It came out AWESOME but it was a huge job and installing the engine and trans was the easy part. As we know: The Devil's in the Details. When I finally finished, I thought, man, I oughta write a pamphlet on the major points of that job. As I've said: The second one is easy. THANKS again for the replies and info. Hunter
     
  6. M1Lover

    M1Lover Well-Known Member

  7. elagache

    elagache Platinum Level Contributor

    Two more resources (Re: Vintage Air Install: 1963 LeSabre Sport Coupe)

    Dear Hunter, Jason, and V-8 Buick and V-8 Buick cool-cat wannabees :cool:

    It occurred to me that that there are two more resources that might be handy. Here is the thread I started on installing Vintage Air in my trusty wagon:

    http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.p...t-system-into-a-1964-67-Buick-Skylark-Special

    It doesn't apply exactly, but it may have some useful ideas that will help you. Something else that was helpful was checking into what da' Chebby crowd had accomplished. Some of the tricks used on my wagon came from the Chevelle crowd and their forums. You might cruise some of the Impala forums looking for Vintage Air installs for a 63. Even if you cannot use all their tricks, there might be some techniques that will work in your Buick.

    Best of luck with this project! :TU:

    Cheers, Edouard
     

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