Useful Tips on Installing Air Conditioning For a Big-Block Camaro – Hot Rod

We install a Southern Air direct-fit A/C system in our big-block Camaro

If you’ve followed along with any of the other tech articles on our ratty 1967 Camaro, then you know that the car sat dormant for many years. We’ve gotten it back on the road, but we still have a lengthy list of projects to make it more comfortable and to help some of its cosmetic issues. When we did some research on the car, we found that it was not originally equipped with a big-block, but that it had air conditioning from the factory. When the car was modified in the ’80s, very little consideration was taken to keep the original air-conditioning system intact. Knowing that we’d basically be starting from scratch, we wanted to get our hands on a kit that would provide a nice upgrade over the original system.

We did have to make a few modifications to the car and to the kit since our Camaro was factory-equipped with air conditioning. The install went smoothly aside from those few tweaks, but it’s still a pretty intensive process. It’s not your average weekend job so prepare for a few evenings in the shop and a couple of trips to the parts store along the way. We installed the system in our home garage without the need for any special tools. We did have to utilize a local shop to crimp the fittings onto the refrigerant hoses, and a shop to fill the system with R-134a refrigerant. Then it was just a matter of firing up the big-block and testing out the new components.

Our ratty Camaro is inching its way toward being a fun weekend cruiser, and the new Southern Air system gives it excellent creature comforts for those hot summer cruise nights.



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