--- cpollock@xxxxxxxx wrote:
(snips at will)
> This is all I know about Airtemp. Airtemp was
> Chrysler's air conditioning division and they made
> air conditioners for almost everything. They also
> made refrigerators and freezer along with
> refrigeration units under the "Kelvinator" brand
> name. Anyone remember those?
Kelvinator wasn't really part of the Chrysler story
until '87, being a division of Nash-Kelvinator and
later AMC before being sold to White Consolidated
Industries in the early '70s... ...Chrysler was,
however, in the appliance industry in kind of a
backdoor manner in the '60s, when they made Kenmore
sewing machines for Sears...
> But Airtemp was also the brand name that all air
> conditioning units for Chrysler were put under.
> On factory air cars a small "Air Conditioning by
> Airtemp" sticker appears on the rear of the
> quarter windows. This was for all of the
> Chrysler cars.
True from about '67 on. The sticker Charles is talking
about, which being later than the FL era has a
pentastar, also appeared in the lower RH corner of the
back window in '64-'66. Prior to that, and this
includes FL stuff, a larger sticker appeared in the
lower RH corner of the back window. This sticker had
"Airtemp" in kind of a "'50s modern" script, and
naturally no pentastar. Not sure what year that
started, I'm guessing '59 or '60 but could be wrong.
Earliest car I've seen this early decal in is a '59
Imperial, latest was my uncle's '63 Polara.
BTW, the '57 Plymouth owners' manual refers to the
factory AC as "CarTemp". Anyone ever seen stickers
saying this or know how long that went on? Seems to me
the Imperials were using the Airtemp name then.
Perhaps the Plymouth units came from an outside
supplier?
> This sticker ONLY appears on factory air cars,
> not dealer add cars.
Sorta true. '60s-'70s MoPar dealer add-on air had a
different sticker that said "Air Conditioned by
Chrysler", and had a pentastar but did not use the
Airtemp name. It was about this same time that
Chrysler started using the "Cool Aire" name on the
aftermarket units. These decals may have said
something like "Chrysler Aftermarket Sales
Corporation" (it's been years since I've seen one).
> As for dealer installed air, they all hung under
> the dash. I have never seen them anywhere else,
> and that includes all of the various brands.
My grandparents had a '67 Dart with dealer installed
indash air. It didn't use the control buttons the
factory unit used, controlled instead by knobs next to
the lower vent just under the ignition switch, but it
appeared to use the same vents as the factory unit
including the AC-specific defroster vents. Years
later, my parents had dealer installed indash air put
into their '75 AMC Matador, but that's a whole other
story.
> As for when and how Airtemp came to be and their
> eventual demise, I don't know. I would speculate
> they were sold off in the early 80's as part of the
> federal restructuring of Chrysler Corp.
Absolutely correct, at least as far as time period. I
always assumed the events were connected.
=====
Mike Sealey, San Francisco CA
'57 Plymouth Sport Suburban
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