A/C in an FJ40 (1 Viewer)

[4x4veteran]

Have any of you put a/c in your cruisers? I have owned my 70 for about 43 years now and have gotten along fairly well with out a/c but have been thinking about it more and more lately. I am looking pretty hard at a kit called Vintage Air. I am open to opinions but really would like some input from actual experience.

 

[JasonH]

The hard part is sealing and insulating the cab. I had AC years ago and I took it out. There's too much heat coming in for the AC to overcome. That said, someday I'd like to re-visit putting in a Vintage Air system and driving my Cruiser more.

 

[cwwfj60]

I've installed a few....Vintage-air recently upgraded their fj40 kit and it is definitely an improvement in performance. The new kit does look more modern, but the blower is more powerful and the controls are electronic with blend doors instead of pull knobs. It all produces a better operating a/c system, which is a must for the South...in my opinion...

These kits are great, but do eat up a lot of passenger leg room.

This also requires removing your factory heater.

 

[White Stripe]

Air conditioning will be my next major modification. l will be looking into this as well.

 

[AlaskanWheeler]

This is a good thread on another A/C option.

 

[4x4veteran]

The hard part is sealing and insulating the cab. I had AC years ago and I took it out. There's too much heat coming in for the AC to overcome. That said, someday I'd like to re-visit putting in a Vintage Air system and driving my Cruiser more.

I hear you on the insulation. In the late 70's through the 80's I pulled a 16 foot travel trailer around the U.S. showing my art at shows. I lived in SoCal at the time so got a lot of summer desert driving. I had two layers of carpeting on the floor and all the vents open. I also messed with a home made swamp cooler that worked marginally. Here in Arkansas the humidity is so high you break into a sweat just sitting in the shade so a refrigeration unit would be the thing. Ps. thanks for the link Silver

 

[Michael B]

I recently installed an Old Air Products unit in my 78' 45 and I love it. It blows at 39 degrees F and did not necessitate the removal of my original heater. I also didn't have to drill extra holes in my dash for control knobs. You can see the install on my building thread. The link to my thread is in my signature line.

 

[76FJ40]

I put Vintage Air in the wife's 45 and it works well. I did insulate the floor and hump with the reflective bubble wrap type stuff sold at Home Depot.

 

[emac]

I put A/C in my 77 FJ40 during the restoration. It was from CCOT, but I think they have since stopped selling them. I think it works pretty good. Well worth the effort and costs. To be fair, I have insulation under my floormat and spent considerable time replacing grommets and body plugs, weatherstripping, etc.

 

[Living in the Past]

What I haven't seen mentioned is how does this effect the power. The F145 in a 1970 is not a real power house. I've done some mods to my 68 over the last 43 years. None of those took any engine power. I rode in a 73 back in the seventies that had a aftermarket A/C added. This was in the middle of summer in Phoenix. Not what kind it was but was running R12. Didn't have any extra insulation and felt it wasn't worth the effort. I do have air conditioning in my 73 FST (different 73) that has A/C installed never tried it. It required removing the factory heater. I also have a inline evaporator that replaces the duct between heater core and blower. Plan on figuring a way to use it to add air to my 65 FJ45LP-B. Figure the cab space to cool is about half of a FJ40 and would work better. I will either be running a 2F or 3FE or a combo of the two.

 

[emac]

A/C adds several seconds to my 0-60 times, but I'm cool with it.

 

[bikersmurf]

The difference between 1 min 25 sec and 1 min 37 sec isn't that significant... slow is still slow.

 

[4x4veteran]

What I haven't seen mentioned is how does this effect the power. The F145 in a 1970 is not a real power house. I've done some mods to my 68 over the last 43 years. None of those took any engine power. I rode in a 73 back in the seventies that had a aftermarket A/C added. This was in the middle of summer in Phoenix. Not what kind it was but was running R12. Didn't have any extra insulation and felt it wasn't worth the effort. I do have air conditioning in my 73 FST (different 73) that has A/C installed never tried it. It required removing the factory heater. I also have a inline evaporator that replaces the duct between heater core and blower. Plan on figuring a way to use it to add air to my 65 FJ45LP-B. Figure the cab space to cool is about half of a FJ40 and would work better. I will either be running a 2F or 3FE or a combo of the two.

Cooling the entire cab of the 40 has crossed my mind. I guess I could do what I did years ago when i was in Oklahoma City. I was there for the weekend when one of those blue northers hit. In 24 hours the weather went from sunny and mild to 10 below and two inches of ice on the ground. I will not bore you with the other problems of that weekend but when we pulled out for home that Sunday night heading up the Will Rodgers turn pike pulling my travel trailer I had card board covering the radiator and the engine temp would not get above 140 degrees. Needless to say the heater was not doing it's best so I pulled a blanket over the roll bar and cut the volume of the cab in half. It made a market difference. I figure on a real hot day I could do something similar with a sheet of clear plastic. Or if it is that hot I could just stay at home and soak in the pool. I am running a 350 so I guess I have a bit of extra power to spare. I haven't even tried to guess what it would do to gas mileage. Then there is the radiator. The original four row was more than adequate but a few years ago I put a new rad in and at the time could only find a three row. It works but not like the original.

 

[Law Dog]

I just finished (literally a few days ago) installing the newer version Vintage Air kit in my 40. I don't have anything to compare it to, but have been pleased with the results so far. The downloadable instructions on the Vintage Air website are pretty straightforward and I suggest taking a look before taking on the project. I haven't seen a write-up here on Mud on the install of the new version, so I will probably do a quick tutorial on my experience.

 

[SW20]

I am planning on purchasing Vintage Air as well. Any reviews on the new unit?

 

[4x4veteran]

I am planning on purchasing Vintage Air as well. Any reviews on the new unit?

I am leaning to the Vintage more. It will probably be next year before I get to it though. I have been doing some remolding on my living room and it will be a few months before the bank account builds back up. Thanks for the input so far. I can always hear more though.

 

[Living in the Past]

I am leaning to the Vintage more. It will probably be next year before I get to it though. I have been doing some remolding on my living room and it will be a few months before the bank account builds back up. Thanks for the input so far. I can always hear more though.

It's a catch twenty-two. I do as much of the remodeling projects myself that I can to keep the cost down and so more money for cruisers. Problem is I've ended up with tons of parts but no time to work on them.