Re: IML: 1952 Air Conditioner //2

Imperialist Joe,

As an owner of a '56 with a factory authorized dealer installation a/c system, I am without the air intakes you speak of [see Turq on '56 page] which would be located on the rear quarters should the car have come with the a/c factory installed. At the time of my purchase, I bought a set of intakes to weld onto the rear in the event I undertook an entire restoration and wanted a 'factory' look. After investigating the matter, I was told that those intakes only account for about 20% of the intake as the recirculation ducts mounted in the rear deck with the blowers actually do 80% of the work, or 100% in my case and I can introduce fresh air via the cowl intake when necessary.

I guess my point is that the exterior rear intakes are not an absolute necessity if one wants a/c.

Jack

In a message dated 9/20/2007 10:07:02 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, jwstrick426@xxxxxxxxxxxx writes:

I believe the rear AC units that were optional in Imperials on into the
'60s use the same physical evaporator assembly except for the 12VDC
motors. You should be able to locate one of these and find a local area
electric motor rebuilder or manufacturer who could make suitable 6VDC
motors to take their place. It may even be possible to find existing
new electric motors from some suppliers that would work too. A 53-56
air intake grill/escutcheon for the rear AC unit would work, although
the' 53-'54 may be different from a '55-'56. Perhaps someone in the
club could take some digital photos of an Imperial equipped with the
rear AC unit from the 53-56 time period so you could see what the air
intake ducts look like. It should not be too difficult to fabricate
refrigerant lines to run from front to rear. I believe that the
refrigerant lines were always run just outboard of the frame rails using
brackets screwed to the frame rails. On OEM units the high pressure
line had a convoluted or corrugated appearance and was made from steel
that was copper plated on the inside. The return line also was copper
plated inside and could be insulated using some of the available foam
plastic or rubber materials available at Home Depot or Lowe's. I
suggest using that since the only thing that cools the compressor is the
return freon. If you use copper lines it would be best to do a spiral
wrap with steel wire to protect the lines from sharp rocks that might be
thrown up by the tires. Try to find a thermally operated expansion
valve for the evaporator. That way you will not have to try to design
some sort of electrically controlled expansion valve. There are some
vendors who advertise in Hemmings Motor News that still have new
evaporator valves for cars of that era.

Joe