Charlene - Lady of the Street
A 1966 Dodge Charger

Heater and Air Conditioner

041407 Happy birthday to me!  What a better way to spend my time and money than working on Charlene?  I took the week off work and went to visit John Paseman in Raleigh to install a new heater and air conditioning system. I chose the AutoClassic Air system.  It is advertised as a "Perfect Fit" but we found that not to be exactly true.  A 3 day project turned into 5 and the budget was stretched to the limit and beyond. On the interior all that has changed is the air vents located in the corners and in the middle.  My 8-track/fm had to go to make room above the console, but with the iPod I hardly use the stereo anymore.   The system uses the original heater controls so temperature ranges from cold (A/C) to hot (heater).  The fan switch controls the on/off for the a/c.  This part was the biggest pain as it did not fit properly and had to be fabricated by John and his staff of colorful assistants.	Because the air will put greater demands on the cooling system we decided to upgrade the rad and fan.  John suggested an aluminium rad with a Spaal electric fan to do the job. The evaporator and condensor along with the hoses fit pretty well. There was little problem installing them under the hood. The bracket holding the compressor had to be trimmed and the location of the dryer near rhe firewall was a poor choice for the Charger as there is no flat surface in that area. We put a very cool looking overflow can beside the rad to accomodate the predicted changes in temperature. We added a transmission cooler to the set up.  The original radiator has connections to cool the transmission but the new aluminium job required an add-on cooler.  This was stacked in front of the evaporator which sits in front of the rad.
	You can see the transmission cooler  stacked in front of the evaporator in this shot.