AC Condenser and Hoses

 All that's left on the AC/Heat system is getting the hosed built and installing the condenser.

The hoses have to be built custom for the car and the ends have to the pressed and crimped on with a special hydraulic hose crimper.  I happen to have one because I have used it on two other cars.  I got the hoses done and was able to get them looking pretty good by routing them from the AC compressor on the engine accross and in front of the battery and under the passenger fender.  There  is only 18 inches of the hoses exposed.  Pretty good.  The fender is not currently installed so the hoses are still mostly visible but you can see how I did it here.

These two hoses go from the compressor to the front of the car, thought the radiator support and connect to the condenser and drier.

These two hoses go from the compressor to the firewall.

The part in the foreground will be under the fender and invisible.

The condenser mounts in front of the radiator and the radiator fans suck air through the AC condenser then through the radiator to cool the engine.  The drier mounted to the left of the condenser will remove moisture from the AC gas.

This is the condenser and drier mounted in front of the radiator.

I was going to fill the system with coolant but first a vacuum test must be done to get all the air out and boil off any moisture before sealing it up.  The vacuum test failed indicating there is a leak somewhere.  This is not surprising because I have never done this job successfully.  I was very careful with the hose crimps and am feeling good about those so I took all the hosed off and checked the O-Rings.  All looked good except when I took the hose off the lower condenser fitting the connector was broken.  It seemed a little funny when I put it together because the fitting didn't spin like it should but I thought it was just because it appeared to be painted on.  But when I took it apart it was actually broken.  Called the vendor and they have an new one on route to me for next week.  

I also bought a nitrogen bottle and will get it filled with nitrogen next week to further test for leakages.  With the nitrogen its better than the vacuum test because you can put the nitrogen in at the same pressure as the real coolant and see if it leaks.  Leaking at 200lbs of pressure is easier to find that a vacuum leaks thats only 26lbs and sucking in.  I got this in hopes of getting my other two AC systems working finally.

OK, while I'm waiting for the condeser I started doing the sanding of the epoxy on the body of the car and filled some low spots with filler and also go the seam sealer into the roof gutter rails.  Tomorrow I will start masking the car off with paper and plastic getting ready to spray the high-build primer.  That will take me a couple days to sand smooth and then its ready to paint the color.  I can do the high-build by myself but still haven't found anyone to help with the color coats.  Once I start the color I have to spray 6 coats of different paint and clear all once right after another.  Very stressful for me.  Plus I have to keep the hose and myself out of the paint while I'm doing the roof, and on top of that mix paint for the gun probably 12 times and clean the gun 3 times....all in just a few hours.  If anything goes wrong it usually means sanding it all off and starting over.  

I think I have to wait for my daughter to help be get this done.