1957 Chevy Salvage yard AC Retrofit

[swampratt]

Well I went and done it.
Or almost so. The wife does not like the extreme heat or cold so much.
So I figured I would walk Pull A Part and see if there was a likely donor for an air conditioning system.

I built a homemade serpentine system years ago for it because V belts today suck.
I kept my standard rotation water pump and that was what I wanted to retain in this swap.
May have been easier to go with all GM stuff and reverse rotation water pump but not my style.

A 2004 Isuzu Axiom was the donor vehicle. As it had the flat coil condenser with an electric fan attached to it and the dryer attached to it.
A 6 rib serpentine pulley was on the compressor.
I pulled compressor all lines the evaporator and condenser and blower motor in about 45 minutes and a couple idler pulleys for 90 bucks total.

I got the pulleys lined up and brackets almost finished.
I hope to have it done soon.
Some pictures.

OH and the idler pulleys are Ford as is part of the water pump pulley. the water pump is Chevy and Ford pulleys welded together.
I measured for a belt with a 2 conductor flat extension cord 70" and mocked it up and it fit.
I also seen a fan shroud on a Ford that looked like it may work on my Chevy with aftermarket aluminum radiator.
It fit pretty well with a little tweaking.
Hope the little 19x22 radiator keeps up and the shroud should help out a bit.
It does fine with NO AC, if it can't keep up I have a huge new 1985 Chevy truck aftermarket radiator that should work but more tweaking to make it work.

 

[beardking]

That is really cool that you can piece things together like that, but man, if I ended up with that car and had to buy parts for it, I'd be SOOOOO confused. :-) Kinda like that Johnny Cash's "One Piece at a Time."

 

[CGS1]

Keeping the wife cool and happy, thats a win win.

 

[chuter]

It's too hot to be working on cars.

 

[swampratt]

Yea it is hot but the water drippin' into my crack keeps me cool
That ac/ idler pulley support bracket is some pieced together angle iron, channel iron and flat steel oh and a shock bushing insert.

 

[swampratt]

Here is something worth knowing .

Annealing.
I am hooking up the refrigerant lines today and the hard lines are aluminum and very hard to bend especially at the bends.
SO I know for a fact if you heat non ferrous metal it will soften and I know since I did many tests with Tempilaq and
sharpie brand permanent markers I could use a sharpie to indicate my heat level.

The aluminum bends clean and easy without any cracking after heating.
Getting closer to finishing it. Hope it works.

On a second note the Blower motor and evaporator both had stickers on them that read Made IN USA.
They are from a 2004 Isuzu Axiom if you missed that part.

 

[harley128]

Wow. Wish I had your talents!

 

[AKguy1985]

Very cool.