Vintage Air new HVAC kit for 82/87 Buick Turbo cars

newlenoxt

New Member
Joined
Jan 22, 2006
Is anyone aware of or used this new HVAC kit from Vintage Air for our cars? Includes all new components and custom hoses, ducts, and controls
Seems like it cleans up the firewall nice and might be a nice upgrade or replacement for anybody who removed the old HVAC box and now wants heat and A/C again.
Pricy though so looking for anyone with experience with this one
 
ArizonaGN makes a kit from the vintage air stuff also. Not sure price difference between the two but that one looks like it relocates the ac compressor so it doesn't need to use the pancake one.
 
The beauty of the Vintage Air stuff is the addition of the modern Sanden compressor. I don't believe either of the above options allows for the use of the Sanden. I chose to re-design my accessory bracket for this very reason.
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The beauty of the Vintage Air stuff is the addition of the modern Sanden compressor. I don't believe either of the above options allows for the use of the Sanden. I chose to re-design my accessory bracket for this very reason. View attachment 388449
Assuming this is your car- ?
That kit in the pic doesn’t look like the new kit advertised directly through vintage air.
I’m contemplating doing this next year and wanted to get feed back/ actual color photos of taking dash out and all steps involved . In the vintage air ad / instructions they show some very grainy black and white photos , and then lists a wiring schematic, do you have to do custom wiring for the kit to work with the stock harness ? Just wondering how much work it is to do this kit…?
 
Call Nick Micale @ Arizona GN.

He's done quite a few of them.
 
I was looking through these lately, as I did a r134a mod ~25yr ago on my GN, and it was never quite the same with stock parts being in AZ. I found Nick's site with the Vintage air kit, but their setup is... dated vs something like the Restomodair kits that include the likes of bluetooth control. They don't make a bolt-in G-body kit, but figure it should be mostly akin to the vintageair kit. Either way, I'd like to make the GN AC actually work for arizona and our global warming situation after 30 years.

Only reason I care, I was contemplating replacing the dash setup with something more modern, ala touch panels for air/radio, maybe speedo/tach, etc too. Android and even IOS have a lot of options for obd2 interaction for gauges and such, only part is we're not obd2, but otherwise upconverting the obd1.5 to 2 standard might be a thing.

If I did replace my radio/hvac sliders with an ipad, I still need to deal with them. The radio is easy, and with a restomodair setup I could control hvac there too via bluetooth with an app with the radio, and theoretically any gauges for things I want via obd.

Now replacing the factory gauge setup with a full lcd monitor...
 
Side note along these lines, anyone found any better hacks or upgrades for the AC over time on these? I was contemplating finding a newer and more efficient condenser for the front, maybe other hacks, but lots is undesirable about AC from this era to just replace it wholesale.
 
Wholesale changes to these cars can cause headaches you never imagined might exist.

I'm jus' sayin'.

Your kids, kids kids, kids will never know the difference, anyway.
 
Thus the inquiry, hoping after 30-40 years folks have gone down all the rabbit holes by now. I know the r134a conversion wasn't all that, but there wasn't a whole kit like the VA setup in the 90's when I was still wrenching mostly.

I'm really curious how folks like the VA kit vs. stock or 134a mod, or if anyone's used Restomodair kit in their G-body. I was looking around even monte forums for anyone using them, didn't find much if any feedback.
 
Again, reach out to Nick, he is probably the most knowledgeable guy in this niche you will find.
 
I have Niks kit on my car it is more expensive but it uses the vitage are parts and the vents are aluminum not plastic they didn't have the gbody controls available when i got mine so it has nicks adaptor
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Assuming this is your car- ?
That kit in the pic doesn’t look like the new kit advertised directly through vintage air.
I’m contemplating doing this next year and wanted to get feed back/ actual color photos of taking dash out and all steps involved . In the vintage air ad / instructions they show some very grainy black and white photos , and then lists a wiring schematic, do you have to do custom wiring for the kit to work with the stock harness ? Just wondering how much work it is to do this kit…?
Sorry for the confusion, I have a hybrid (68 Camaro) so the kit is different. I was basically just showing that you can run a Sanden compressor with a little ingenuity.
 
Sorry for the confusion, I have a hybrid (68 Camaro) so the kit is different. I was basically just showing that you can run a Sanden compressor with a little ingenuity.
It appears the new kit that vintage air came out with also relocates the alternator and same compressor you have , I’ll double check though.

Thanks
 
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