Looking for advice to restore my a/c

[Pat Baysinger]

Nearly all my a/c parts under the hood (with the exception of the evaporator) were removed long before I bought my car, a 63 Electra, 5 years ago. I don't even have the bracket that holds the compressor and the generator, the correct 20" fan blade, or the pulley. There's basically nothing there to work with. To begin, I'm looking for advice and photo's to put everything back to the way it should be. Then I'll start looking for names and numbers of reputable retailers to buy the parts from. This is a tall order.<P>I know someone who has all the parts for sale, still on a car. I'm thinking of buying the parts, just to have something to go by, but that seems like a waste of money, since I'll probably need to buy new parts anyway. I don't know. Any and all advice is appreciated. My email is pat6801@yahoo.com. I'm in no hurry, but I would like to get started on it.<P>Pat

[Guest COMPACTBC]

If you can get the those parts that are still on the car at a reasonable price, I would do it. Take lots of pictures before they are removed, so you can refer to the proper way that they go back on the car. Most of the parts will probably be OK and the ones that are not could be rebuilt or replaced by a company in Texas called Old Air or Classic Air or something like that. Don't forget to get the inside the car parts if yours are missing. PS The evaporator is inside the car, the part under the hood by the radiator is called a condenser <BR> <p>[ 05-25-2002: Message edited by: COMPACTBC ]

[brad54]

I agree--if you can get all the parts from a donor car, do it! Things like brackets, clips, etc. will kill you. For instance, on a '69 Dodge Charger, there are hard lines that run over the top of the radiator core support, and there is a specific little clip that holds the lines to the core support. You can't just find something like that. I'm sure the Buick will be the same.<BR>I've worked with Classic Auto Air in Tampa, Florida on several occasions, and I recommend them. I've done magazine articles with them, and they've done the system on my personal '54 Special. They can do custom installations, and Concours-quality restoration. They're number is 813-251-2356.<BR>You might also ask them about converting to R134a from Freon. I'm a fan of the conversion, especially if you're completely rebuilding/restoring the entire system. In fact, after close to ten years of working the bugs out, I'd say there's no real reason not to convert--the systems work as well as R12/Freon when properly done ("Properly" being the key). Unless you're going with a concours resto--in which case the fill and drain valves are different enough to lose points. <BR>Give them a call. I don't beleive they'll steer you wrong.<BR>-Brad