an underdash unit is like afterburners. no loss thru ducting , straight out of the coil. same unit my dad had in his mustang. yep it would make snow cones.

well i'll get jumped on here but i prefer old air products. heres why, they work like your fact air. they PULL air thru the a coil instead of trying to preasureize the box first to force air out. they have twice the size fan . they dont take all the room behind your dash. one big prob with air is having them installed by someone who does'nt understand a/c. i wont go into that cause it takes too long. i'm running out of pennys.

air volume is the trick to a/c. the sole purpose of the a coil is to condense moisture from the air. the most important thing on the interiors im my cars is to seal it. any outside air exchange is more humidity to remove. give me air volume first, it will take care of the rest. did you vac your new car really good? do you take a pet with you? air exchange ! ok now tell me where i messed up.

gman, i've had the icing problem too. if you cycle the comp. more it will stay defrosted.

i'm about to install an old air unit in the 55 as soon as i get the motor in. old air is in ft worth. i had a shop near them back in 91. gman, 50 degrees is ok for a new truck blowing good but i shoot for at least 45 in my rods. the black 37 was blowing 38 degrees out the vents when it left here. it does'nt have much ducting. i brought all three vent straight out the dash. cooling a convert is tough with any unit. air leaks kill a/c. until you remove the humidity it aint gonna be cool. be carfull not to overcharge, your vent temp will rise if you do.

Hawgs, sorry to hear of your problems with VinAir. All of my family members in Florida use Vintage Air and have never had any problems. I have Airtique in my streetrod and have no complaints. It has been in there for about 14 years. I have another system in my 57, which I will not name as things could get nasty. I had problems with it initially but not in the last 4 years. I will not buy another one again. I have heard some good things about Hot Rod Air, but have no first hand experience with them.

Hey Sixguns: this is a topic that has had many a conversation...here's my take. You have to think of an HVAC system in your car just like you would in your house. It needs to be sealed and insulated VERY WELL. Be sure to provide a path for return air back to the fan (i.e., take this into consideration when sealing under the dash). Be sure you get the proper size unit for your vehicle. Make it servicable.

Now, here's my problem w/ aftermarket HVAC units. Without naming names, big ad budgets don't necessarily translate into good products. Do your homework. There is a certain big company that I've owned 3 times (sorry Leon) but will not buy again. Component failures, sealed boxes that require sawing or splitting to service internals, undersized fans, inadequate cooling, etc. All the units have the same characteristics and even their tech guys recommend you not run the thermostat on "full cool" because the evaporators freeze up. Now you can tell by my answer, I've done everything possible to make sure my cars cool - I must be an oddball 'cause lots of folks talk about how good these guys are - but I'm being very honest with you. Bottom line: use your head, get lots of info from lots of companies - there are a number of choices. Even so, aftermarket HVAC just plain doesn't work as well as Detroit's factory units - at least that's my story and I'm stickin' to it. If you don't believe me on all this, check out the new forum "Where's Big Al?"

40 degrees or so is the temp to shoot for. Some depending on duct lenght will get around 45 and others high 30's.

I don't care for the fact that the vintage air systems you have to destroy the "box" to get at the internals. Some problems with the temp switches and other switches, but I guess thats gonna happen with anyones stuff. I have yet to see one cool the inside of a large car, pickups yes and small coupes yes, but larger vehicles it is nessesary to aim the vents to hit the occupants. Just my 2 cents, and I'm certainly no builder or expert.-Brant